Just the Facts, Ma'am
by Hilary
On July 12th, 1994, Bellevue, Washington residents Tariq and
Sultana Rafay (both age 56 at the time), and their autistic daughter
Basma, 19, were bludgeoned to death with an aluminum baseball
bat. 18-year-olds Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns, who claimed
they were blissfully enchanted by "The Lion King" at
a local movie theatre at the time of the murder, were charged
with the crime. Atif Rafay, son of Tariq and Sultana, and brother
of Basma, stood to collect insurance money and other financial
assets following their deaths. This fact combined with the boys'
alleged belief in Nietzsche's Superman Theory, and Burns' particularly
ego-maniac personality profile, seems to implicate Burns and Rafay.
Being Canadian citizens, the two
returned to their homes in Vancouver following several days of
interviewing by Bellevue investigators.
Burns and Rafay were later identified as suspects and arrested in Canada in July of 1995, but weren't
returned to King County until March of 2001. What occurred in
the interim was a 6-year long extradition battle pitting Canadian
Law against American. Canada, which formally opposes the death
penalty, does not extradite criminals to stand trial in cases
where the death penalty would be sought. For a crime this severe,
the death penalty would have been a possibility if the two were
found guilty. However, in order for the Canadian government to
agree to extradite Burns and Rafay, King County prosecutors
had to agree not to seek the death penalty.
The extradition battle was not the
only thing, though, that delayed the trial proceedings. There was
also the issue last year of Sebastian Burns being caught engaged
in a sex act with his (former) defense attorney, Theresa Olson. As
a consequence, the defense team had to be reconfigured,
essentially setting the process leading up to trial back a year.
The case has also been mired with debates over potentially illegally-acquired
confessions from the defendants, reports that someone else entirely
confessed to the murders, and key witnesses changing their original
stories, or even running away to Japan.
The trial of Sebastian Burns and
Atif Rafay began in November of 2003, 9 years and 4 months after
the murders took place.
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