Two former Vancouver men convicted eight years ago of murdering one of the men’s parents and sister will have their appeal heard on July 8 in the Washington State Court of Appeals.
It will be 17 years since the horrific triple murder.
One of the grounds of appeal is that the defence was not allowed to call an expert witness Richard Leo, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, who planned to testify that an RCMP undercover operation used in Canada to elicit confessions from Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay would be considered illegal in the U.S.
But the U.S. prosecution plans to argue the confessions were voluntary and properly admitted as crucial evidence at trial.
Another ground of appeal is that the prosecutor in the case, James Konat, used racist language in his final arguments, comparing the triple murder to the then-recent beheading of an American citizen in Iraq by Muslim extremists, according to the Seattle Times, which pointed out that another murder conviction won by Konat was recently overturned by the Supreme Court for using prejudicial language.
Burns and Rafay were convicted in 2004 and are serving three consecutive life prison terms for the July 1994 deaths of Rafay’s parents, Tariq and Sultana Rafay, and the couple’s autistic daughter, Basma.
The murder case has been controversial because it involved Burns and Rafay confessing to Canadian undercover officers, during a Mr. Big undercover operation, that they were involved in the murders at the Rafay family him in Bellevue, Wash.
Burns’ sister, Tiffany Burns, produced a 2007 documentary, Mr. Big, on the undercover police technique, which is legal in Canada and has put many killers behind bars.
Burns and Rafay maintain they gave false confessions to crimes they did not commit.
Rafay and Burns say they went out for dinner and a movie and returned home to find the bloody murder scene, then called 911.
The full legal arguments in the case are posted online at the website of the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division One.
Burns' legal brief is here: http://1.usa.gov/mwCPNE
The state's response to Rafay's appeal brief is here: http://1.usa.gov/lkXbKz
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