Bedevil soft convict with every other rule (6)
I believe the answer is:
plague
'bedevil' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'soft convict with every other rule' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano').
'convict' becomes 'lag' (I've seen this in other clues).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'every other' indicates alternate letters.
The alternate letters of 'rule' are 'ue'.
'p'+'lag'+'ue'='PLAGUE'
(Other definitions for plague that I've seen before include "Afflict" , "Swarm of insects" , "Deadly pestilence" , "fatal outbreak" , "dog" .)