Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(Page 1 of 11)June 17, 2006
(CBS) This story originally aired on Aug. 6,
2005.
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What happened to the Rafay family one summer night in
1994 brought tragedy and mystery to a quiet neighborhood
in Bellevue, Wash.
On July 13, just after 2 a.m., police were called to a
crime that would take them 10 years to bring to justice.
"It was a plan. A well-rehearsed, well-thought-out
plan," say James Jude Konat, a senior deputy prosecutor
in King County. He and a team of detectives have been
haunted by this crime -- and the killers who got away.
The search for the truth would lead police to another
country, through a web of intriguing clues. Could a
screenplay that described a murder unlock the mystery?
And in the end, would a sophisticated undercover
operation, set up in the make-believe world of crime,
catch the real killers?
Correspondent Peter Van Sant reports on this mystery.
The story begins on July 13, 1994, with a call for help.
Sebastian Burns and his friend, Atif Rafay, had stumbled
onto a horrific scene. Atif's parents had been found
murdered.
"There is nothing that I can imagine about my parents
that could have justified anyone to do what was done to
them," says Atif.
Sultana Rafay, Atif's mother, was the first to be
killed. "I saw Atif's mom lying on the floor," recalls
Sebastian. Atif’s father, Tariq Rafay was the next to be
murdered. "It was basically an overkill," says Det. Bob
Thompson, who has been on the case since the night it
began. "And it just looked like someone had hit him 40
or 50 times."
As the boys waited for help to arrive, a third victim,
Atif's autistic older sister, Basma, was clinging to
life, moaning in her bedroom. "It would make sense that
she was murdered last because everybody knows she can't
make a 911 call," says Konat.
Basma died at the hospital a few hours after the attack,
taking with her the secret of who killed the Rafay
family.
The Rafays had just moved to Bellevue from Vancouver,
Canada. Sultana, who had a doctorate in nutrition,
devoted her life to raising her gifted son and disabled
daughter. Tariq Rafay was a structural engineer who had
worked on buildings around the world.
Who would take the lives of this quiet family, and spare
the life of their only son? Detectives began to look
more closely at the crime scene.
In his 911 call, Sebastian said there was a "break in"
when he reported what had happened that night. "Just
looking at that room, you start realizing this looks
like someone set it up," says Thompson. "Boxes were
tipped over. Drawers were opened, but nothing appeared
to have been gone through."
That night, when police asked what was missing, Atif
said two things: his Discman and a VCR. "Someone
murdered three people and took his Walkman and a VCR? I
mean, it makes no sense," says Det. Thompson.
Detectives probed deeper into the case. Who were these
two teenage boys who reported the crime?
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(Page 2 of 11)June 17, 2006
(CBS) Sebastian and Atif had been best friends since
high school.
"They became very good friends because they were both
precocious. They were both intelligent," recalls Sarah
Isaacs, Sebastian's high school sweetheart.
Sebastian was raised in a loving family with English
roots, and grew up playing classical cello. "He was very
smart. He's definitely what you would call an
intellectual," says his sister, Tiffany, who when 48
Hours aired this story in 2005, was a television
reporter with the CBS station in Cleveland.
Sebastian became a member of the Royal Canadian Air
Cadets and was given an award by Prince Edward. Atif
attended Cornell University. It was the summer of their
freshman year of college when their lives took that
unexpected turn.
"It's sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, where you know ...
you start fitting it together and pretty soon, you get a
picture," says Thompson.
Police took Sebastian and Atif to the station, where
they were examined for traces of blood. They found
nothing. When asked where they had been that evening,
the boys provided a full account. At 8:30 p.m., they
drove to a restaurant for a bite to eat. Then, they went
to a 9:50 p.m. showing of "The Lion King." After the
movie, they stopped for a bite to eat, and left the
waitress a $6 tip on a $9 tab.
"Everywhere they went, the people who had contact with
them remembered them," says Konat.
But something else troubled police. How could Sebastian
and Atif provide so much detail about where they had
been that evening, but not recall key moments at the
murder scene? Cops became even more suspicious when
Sebastian and Atif were spotted at a local video store
renting movies the night after the murders.
So the police pressed the boys further on what happened
in the Rafay house. They wanted to know why Atif didn’t
help his dying sister, even though he heard her through
the bedroom door.
Three days after the murders, relatives of the Rafays
gathered in Bellevue to bury the victims. But the only
surviving member of the immediate family, Atif, was
nowhere to be found. He was on a bus headed across the
border to Canada with his best friend, Sebastian.
In Vancouver, the boys were out of reach of Bellevue
detectives, and an investigation that targeted them for
the murders of the Rafay family. Their sudden bus trip
across the border only raised more suspicion, even
though both boys were Canadian citizens. In fact, a
representative from the Canadian consulate informed the
Bellevue police of their trip in advance.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) Det. Thompson's gut told him that the boys were
guilty, but he just didn't have the evidence to prove
it. Investigators kept combing the house. They found no
forced entry. However, there was an eerie forensic tool
- luminol - that showed an enormous amount of blood on
the shower walls. The killer had used the shower before
leaving.
Could that be the reason why the boys, who discovered
the bodies, didn't have a trace of blood on their hair,
their hands, or anywhere on their bodies? Even without
physical evidence, detectives were determined. They
began to build a case against the boys based on their
odd behavior following the murders. "They cooperated,"
says Thompson. "They did everything that was asked of
them. However, when they did things, they had this air
or this attitude about doing it."
They honed in on the boys' demeanor at the crime scene
and questioned why they sat in front of the house if
they believed an intruder might still be there. Police
also couldn't make sense of why Atif would notice that
his Discman and VCR were missing.
Sebastian's family and friends rallied around him and
Atif. "I believe him to be totally innocent as is Atif.
And they have been damned," says Sebastian's father,
Dave Burns.
On the advice of a lawyer, the boys decided to stop
cooperating with Bellevue authorities. So Thompson kept
digging into the boys' past, and found what he thought
was a disturbing clue from their past. He discovered
that Sebastian was in a high school play called "Rope,"
about two kids who commit the perfect murder. Detectives
believed the fictional murder story inspired the real
life crime, and even more chilling, the weapon used was
the same -- a baseball bat.
"That's just a huge coincidence, and it's nothing more
than that," says Dave Burns. "I think Sebastian was
actually mortified when he realized that he was a
suspect in the baseball bat killings of the Rafays,
because he said, 'Cripes, what's gonna happen when they
find out about the play?'"
As the investigation continued, the boys were living
well in Vancouver, with some of the money Atif inherited
from his parents' estate. They bought a convertible, and
rented an apartment along with another high school pal,
Jimmy Miyoshi.
Behind drawn curtains, they hid from the media, who were
constantly in pursuit of them and their story. But what
they didn't realize was that they were now the targets
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
On April 10, 1995, RCMP investigators intercepted a
phone message confirming a salon appointment with
Sebastian. By then, Sebastian and Atif were Canada's
most famous teenage murder suspects. But the boys had a
plan to make their fortune and live out a lifelong
dream. They started work on their very own screenplay
about two best friends accused of murdering a family.
They called the screenplay, "The Great Despisers."
But they had no idea the real-life plotline was about to
take an astonishing turn. That simple message from a
local hair salon was the moment the RCMP was waiting
for.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) As Sebastian left the salon, a stranger approached
him, asking for a ride to his hotel. The stranger then
took Sebastian to a bar and bought him a drink for his
trouble. Sebastian told this stranger that he and his
buddies had written a screenplay. Sebastian said he
didn't have a job and needed financing. The stranger
said he knew someone who could help.
"Ultimately, the goal was to get Sebastian to meet with
the next guy up the chain," says Konat. "And it worked
perfectly."
Sebastian thought he was about to meet a connected
businessman. But he actually met with Sgt. Haslett of
the RCMP, working undercover.The RCMP, which spent
months preparing to manipulate their target, posed as
professional mobsters and set up their first meeting
with Sebastian in a strip club.
The crime boss told Sebastian he had cash to invest in
his screenplay, but Sebastian would have to earn it.
Sebastian had no idea, however, that he was being
offered work in a make-believe world of crime. Jobs were
also promised to Atif and Miyoshi.
Sebastian's first assignment was to transport a stolen
car for the crime boss for $200. Then, Sebastian and
Jimmy Miyoshi went from one bank to another laundering
money. For a day's work, they were paid $2,000 cash.
Months went by, and the undercover operators took
Sebastian to posh hotels trying to build trust and draw
him out. The mobsters slowly brought up the topic of the
investigation in Bellevue, and Haslett tried to draw
Sebastian out by telling him he already knew what
happened.
Sebastian didn’t admit guilt, but he confided in the
mobsters that if the police did find something to tie
him to the crime, he might want them to destroy it. And
he has a very practical theory. As one of the best-known
murder suspects in Canada, Sebastian is confident that
his movie would make millions if he is suddenly proven
innocent.
So the businessmen raise the stakes and tell Sebastian
that the Bellevue police have physical evidence tying
him to the crime. And to make it real, Haslett shows
Sebastian a phony memo on Bellevue Police letterhead
detailing the evidence linking Sebastian to the murders.
The mobsters offer to destroy the so-called
evidence(redundant to put quotation marks when we say
it's so-called) but they need Sebastian to tell them
exactly what happened in the Rafay house the night of
the murders.
Finally, on July 18, 1995, one year after the murders,
Sebastian meets Haslett at the Ocean Point Resort, and
the cameras are rolling.
"He walks into this hotel room and takes off his shoes.
He stretches out on a love seat, and it's at that point
he lets his guard down," says Konat. "And the dirty
little secret that he's been protecting for the last 12
or 13 month starts to unravel on video for the whole
wide world to see."
It had taken three months of undercover work to get to
this moment.
The next day, Sebastian brought Atif to the crime boss
to tell his story, which was recorded on an undercover
tape. It's all the police needed to hear. "Those were
solid, strong confessions that only the individuals that
were responsible for that murder would be able to sit
down and tell it like it was," says Haslett.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) Sebastian, Atif and Miyoshi were arrested. But the
case is just beginning. Sebastian says he was lying, and
that undercover officers had intimidated him into making
a false confession.
"I believe that if I crossed them, they would have me
killed," says Sebastian.
But no sooner were Sebastian and Atif arrested, than the
same Canadian government that set up a trap to catch
them led an international battle to spare their lives.
The case went all the way to Canada's Supreme Court.
Sending the boys back to Washington meant they would
face the death penalty if convicted -- a punishment that
Canada had abolished years ago, and considered inhumane.
After six years of legal wrangling, the King County
prosecutor in Seattle agreed to Canada's demands not to
seek the death penalty. Sebastian and Atif, now 25, were
finally extradited to face murder charges. If convicted,
the penalty would now be life without parole.
They were appointed a team of attorneys. Representing
Sebastian was Theresa Olsen, an ardent, if eccentric
public defender who believed in the boys' innocence. She
worked tirelessly on the case, running down leads and
witnesses.
But in the summer of 2002, the case would take a bizarre
turn. Guards at the King County Jail reported seeing
Olsen having sex with Sebastian during an
attorney-client meeting. The well-publicized scandal
caught the attention of national media and brought the
trial to a grinding halt. The judge said he had no
choice but to dismiss Olsen from the case.
Sebastian's new attorneys were a dream team: Ivy League
trained Jeff Robinson and Song Richardson. With Amanda
Lee, they were among Seattle's best and most expensive
criminal defense lawyers. But they agreed to take the
high-profile case at a public defender's wage.
They were up against two of the most seasoned and
respected prosecutors in Seattle: Roger Davidheiser
would be joining James Konat on the case.
By September 2003, Sebastian and Atif had been in jail
for more than eight years, charged, but never convicted
for the Rafay family murders. Their case, however, would
turn on those controversial confessions.
It would be up to Superior Court Judge Charles Mertel to
decide if Sebastian and Atif's chilling confessions,
caught on tape in Canada, would be allowed to damn them
in an American court. It would be the most controversial
ruling of his career. The boys' lives would depend on
what he was about to say:
"I do not find the undercover officers’ conduct in this
case shocking or outrageous, although they were
deceitful, persistent, and aggressive...They engaged in
tricks, but not dirty tricks."
It was a controversial ruling allowing the boys' own
words to be used against them -- and it would set the
tone for the whole case. But while the confessions may
be shocking, the defense says they're not true.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) Finally, in November 2003, more than 9 years after
the Rafay murders, Sebastian and Atif get their day in
court.
The boys' character is at the heart of the prosecution's
case. "The defendants were two young men who believed
they could commit the perfect murder," says Davidheiser,
who zeroed in on the piece of evidence that launched the
case. And for the first time, he revealed a startling
flaw in the boys' plan: "They made that 911 call too
quickly."
The timing was critical, so 48 Hours asked Det. Thompson
to retrace the boys' drive home from downtown Seattle,
where they were seen that night. The drive timed out to
18 minutes. And 18 minutes, according to Thompson, would
leave three minutes for the boys to be in the house
before calling 911.
The prosecutors say three minutes is not enough time in
the house to find the bodies and do all the things
Sebastian and Atif told police they did.
"Think what they had to do in that three minutes," says
Davidheiser in his opening argument. "Pull the family
car into the garage, enter the home through the garage,
and this is the important part, discover and comprehend
that Sultana, Tariq and Basma had been brutally attacked
and lay dead in three different areas of the house."
The revelation startled the defense. But Song Richardson
was thinking on her feet and was able to turn the
prosecution's argument on its head. Richardson, who
delivered the opening argument for the defense, asked
jurors, "How long does it take to walk into a house and
see these two brutally butchered bodies of Atif's family
and run downstairs and call 911?" To demonstrate her
point, she walked around the cavernous courtroom for a
minute-and-a-half and timed it with her stopwatch. "How
long is three minutes?" she asked. "Well, let's see."
But it wasn't just the murders. In that three minutes,
the boys also needed time to figure out there'd been a
burglary, and that a VCR and Discman were missing.
Sebastian says that he was not thinking straight when he
reported the break-in: "I was out of my mind at the
time. I was totally in shock, totally staggered and
confounded and was almost totally hysterical," he says.
But the defense's claim of the boys' innocence is
bolstered by testimony from neighbors on both sides of
the Rafay house who heard sounds coming from inside the
Rafay house at a time the boys have an airtight alibi --
they were at the movies.
The prosecution argued that even though the boys were
seen going to the 9:50 p.m. movie, there's no proof that
they stayed. Theater employee Jose Martinez showed 48
Hours how they could easily sneak out from the movie
theater without drawing any attention to themselves or
letting light into the theater.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) The defense argued that even though it could've
happened that way, there was no proof it did, that
prosecutors were grasping at straws to get a conviction.
In fact, months into the trial, prosecutors brought an
intriguing surprise witness from the boys' past who said
she had evidence that could turn the case. But first,
they would have to convince the judge to let a jury hear
what she had to say.
Nazgol Shifteh was a friend from the boys' high school
days who had once dated Sebastian. She claimed a
late-night conversation she'd had with both Sebastian
and Atif years ago in her bedroom had planted the seeds
for murder. Away from the jury, she told the court that
Sebastian had said, "I want to try to kill someone one
day, to see how, how it would feel. Because I think I
would find it enjoyable."
Sebastian doesn't deny having the conversation, but
emphatically says he wasn't serious: "I mean, it's a
one-line, paraphrase of a sarcasm from a hippy-dippy 3
a.m. conversation 10 years ago, and I can't remember
enough about it to defend myself against it. "
It was certainly damning testimony, but the judge
decided not to let the jury hear. His decision flustered
prosecutors, but there is another witness -- more
powerful and much more damning. It would be the friend
the boys were sure would never betray them: Jimmy
Miyoshi.
It had been years since Miyoshi had seen his high school
buddies. He had moved to Japan and was living under
another name when prosecutors forced him to return to
Seattle and face his friends at their murder trial.
Miyoshi was once a target of the RCMP, who believed he
had helped his friends plan the murder of the Rafay
family. They had wanted him to give a full confession on
tape, just like his friends had done, but Miyoshi
refused to implicate his friends in the murder -- even
though he was arrested with Sebastian and Atif and
interrogated by authorities in Canada.
Back then, Miyoshi said his friends were innocent. But
under increasing pressure, he eventually agreed to
cooperate. In exchange, he was granted immunity from
charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
Suddenly, Miyoshi began to reveal more to the police
about what he knew. But now, the question loomed: Would
Miyoshi betray his best friends? In a halting voice that
often dropped to a whisper, Miyoshi told the court that
it was during a drive from Seattle to Vancouver when
Atif first mentioned the idea of killing his family.
On the stand, Miyoshi recounted a discussion about how
the boys would commit the crime: "I remember something
about gassing the house, and I remember discussion
about, I guess, using a baseball bat."
Why a baseball bat? "I guess that it was, it's a quick
and painless way of killing someone," says Miyoshi.
"I don't think there's any question that he [Miyoshi]
was a sounding board for them," says prosecutor Konat.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) The prosecution says Miyoshi consulted on an
especially chilling part of the plan: Sebastian and Atif
visited the Rafay family five days before the murders,
and that was no coincidence. It was part of a plan to
get away with the perfect crime.
"It they had been living in the house previously that
any kind of hair or whatever samples that were collected
after wouldn't necessarily mean that they had done it,
as opposed to, if they had never been at the house
before," says Miyoshi.
"Any fingerprint that would be found, or could be found,
could be explained as a result of their having been
there for several days," says Konat. "Any hair evidence
that might be found could be explained for them having
been in the house for several days prior to the
murders."
Finally, Miyoshi gave the prosecution what they needed.
He said that Atif watched while Sebastian bludgeoned his
family.
"I remember from Atif hearing about how he was fairly
distraught," says Miyoshi. "From the moment that
Sebastian had struck his mother that it was kind of a,
there was no going back."
How hard was it for Atif to sit and listen to Miyoshi's
testimony? "It was enormously difficult. I think it was
difficult for him as well," says Atif. "As I say, I am
outraged that he did it. But at the same time, I
reserved my real outrage for the people who forced him
to do it."
Sebastian denies ever discussing a plan to murder the
Rafay family with Miyoshi, and says Miyoshi didn't have
a choice but to testify against his friends. "He had a
life sentence held to his head," says Sebastian. "If he
didn't say what the police and the prosecution wanted
him to say, that life sentence was gonna go off."
The defense tried to hammer back, saying Miyoshi once
lied to save his friends, so he could easily be lying
now to save himself. During cross-examination, Jeff
Robinson pointed out inconsistencies in Jimmy's
statements over the years, and told Miyoshi "You're
making it up as you go along."
The defense needed to come back with something strong,
and they had an arsenal of forensic evidence that flew
in the face of Miyoshi's testimony. They told the jury
that there were three killers in the house that night.
Experts analyzed the patterns of blood on the wall and
found drops everywhere except in one area, where there
was no blood -- indicating that another killer may have
stood there during the attack. They also said a pillow
was moved during the bludgeoning.
Richardson explains it this way: "We have killer No. 1
moving the pillow... we have killer No. 2 bludgeoning
Dr. Rafay with the bat...and then we have killer No. 3
who has to remain in the exact same place throughout the
entire duration of the attack on Dr. Rafay."
And there was even more tangible evidence: a single hair
on Tariq Rafay's bed -- one that did not match
Sebastian, Atif, or any of the members of the Rafay
family.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(CBS) Prosecutors, however, say DNA evidence needs to
fit a pattern and appear in more than one place at a
crime scene. "That DNA profile appeared nowhere else in
that house," says Davidheiser. "There was absolutely no
other pattern of trace evidence that could even be
remotely suggested to be related to that hair. That was
an isolated hair."
So with the forensic evidence inconclusive, the case
comes down to whom the jury would believe. More than 100
witnesses would take the stand in the case of The State
vs. Burns and Rafay. Finally, Canada’s most secret
undercover operation would be exposed before the jury,
and so would the question that had lingered for so many
years: Why would Sebastian confess to a murder he says
he didn’t commit?
"At that point, it seemed like the only safe choice,"
says Sebastian. "It seemed like the best choice."
The defense set out to prove that the scales were tipped
from the beginning: professional liars against teenage
boys. Sebastian says that he couldn't walk away from
criminals whose power seemed to be so far reaching.
"I believed that if I crossed them, or if they weren't
happy with me, or if they thought I was going to betray
them, that they would have me killed," says Sebastian.
On the stand, the defense pressed Sgt. Haslett about his
scare tactics. Haslett says the idea was not to frighten
Sebastian, but to make him comfortable talking about
murders to other murderers. "He didn't have to return
our calls," says Haslett, when 48 Hours asked him if
Sebastian could have walked away from the relationship.
The defense argued that Sebastian also stayed because he
believed the Bellevue police were fabricating evidence
against him. The phony memo that Haslett showed
Sebastian during the undercover operation detailed the
so-called evidence the Bellevue cops had against the
boys. The undercover operators only offered to destroy
the evidence if Sebastian confessed. They never offered
to destroy it if he said he was innocent.
"My plan was to claim to be the murderer that they
insisted, that they believed I was," says Sebastian. And
to be convincing, Sebastian says he studied newspaper
accounts so he'd know details of the murders.
During that secretly recorded conversation with the
so-called mobsters, Sebastian confirmed the police
theory that the weapon was a baseball bat, and that the
killer had showered before leaving the crime scene.
Sebastian revealed how he and Atif would profit from the
crime: "Whatever money we get, we would invest it in our
film." And, he gave up the most sought-after clue, the
loophole in the alibi: "[We did it] during the movie."
The next day, during his conversation with the supported
crime boss, Atif explained that he staged a break-in
while Sebastian killed the family.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(Page 10 of 11)June 17, 2006
(CBS) Beyond the damning evidence on that tape, the
prosecution had another bombshell ready to drop on the
defense. It wasn't the first time Sebastian used a movie
as an alibi. When he was 16, he staged an elaborate
cover-up to conceal the fact that he had wrecked the
family car.
Prosecutor Davidheiser drew a haunting parallel between
the accident scene and the murder scene. Back in high
school, Sebastian went to great lengths to make it seem
like someone else did the damage when he was at the
movies. But the insurance company caught him in the
cover-up.
Davidheiser pressed Sebastian: “You manipulated the
evidence to appear as though it was something that it
wasn’t am I right?”
“Yes,” says Sebastian.
“And the reason that you did that sir, was so that you
could say that this accident happened while you were at
the movies. Am I right?” asks Davidheiser.
“Correct,” says Sebastian.
But, Sebastian said on the stand: "In the first case, I
was responsible for the car scene. And in the second
case, I had nothing to do with the homicide."
But Davidheiser would not let that statement go in front
of the jury. He had more of that damning tape.
"Your behavior on that tape, when there's some laughing,
did you think the murder of the Rafay family was some
sort of comedy?," Van Sant asks Sebastian.
"No, absolutely not," says Sebastian. "We were lying and
I was not thinking of the Rafay family when I was
talking."
On tape, Atif told Van Sant, "To a certain extent, I had
to essentially put the real events out of my mind
entirely. So that I was really only thinking of the
story that I was selling to Mr. Haslett."
“That’s not a story that two scared individuals come up
with because they think it’s what two mafia characters
want to hear,” said Davidheiser. “That’s the truth.
That’s the truth coming from the mind of Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns.”
But what would the jury believe? Six months of testimony
come down to one final argument. The defense knows it is
their last chance in front of the jury. "How many times
does the evidence have to tell us it's not Sebastian and
it's not Atif before we listen?" Jeff Robinson asks
during his closing statement. He points to the bloody
scene in Tariq's bedroom -- evidence of three killers.
Written In Blood
Were Two Teenagers Cold-Blooded Killers?
(Page 11 of 11)June 17, 2006
(CBS) Robinson also reminds the jury that there is no
forensic evidence linking the boys to the crime: "The
question that you're required to ask yourselves is,
'What has the state shown me to make me believe that he
is guilty without having one reason to doubt it?'"
The prosecution, however, insists it's Sebastian's own
words that leave no room for doubt.
For the last time, the jury is asked to envision the
last moments in the Rafay family home.
Finally, it is up to the jury to make its decision. In
the script of "The Great Despisers," two boys are
wrongfully convicted and executed. After four days of
deliberations, 10 years after the murders, the final
twist in the real-life plotline: The jury finds
Sebastian and Atif guilty of murder.
“I did not believe that they didn't have a reasonable
doubt. I just didn't believe it," says Sebastian. "I was
looking at individual jurors just to see if they, I
don't know, I guess I was just looking for some kind of
answer."
"I'm afraid of him. I think he's very scary," says one
juror. "I looked at him a few times, and he was glaring
at me personally. And anybody that'd commit a crime like
that is a frightening person."
"I wonder how they sleep at night," says Sebastian's
sister, Tiffany. "I wonder how they came to that
decision."
On Oct. 22, 2004, five months after the verdict,
Sebastian and Atif were back in court -- this time to
hear their sentence from the judge. Sebastian had his
own message for the court: "With all due respect to the
jurors, the verdict was wrong."
In the audience were jurors who had convicted him, and
the undercover operators who had sealed his fate. "I
certainly feel sorry for the victims. I feel sorry for
their surviving son," says Sebastian, in a speech that
went on for almost two hours. "We didn't commit the
crime."
Atif never took the stand during the trial. "I loved my
parents. I revere their memory to this day," says Atif,
who used this moment to admit he was ashamed. "The
impersonation that I gave on those videotapes ...
there's no relation - is alien to everything that I've
ever felt or thought."
He adds: "I truly admired my father. I was probably
closer to my mother than any other person than I ever
will be. The memory of her wit and her charm and keen
human sympathy are dear to me to this day."
"Mr. Rafay, thank you. Unlike your colleague, I find you
genuinely remorseful, Mr. Rafay," says Judge Mertel to
Atif. "I think the tragedy for you -- and ultimately
your family, was a meeting at probably a school
cafeteria or school ground – I don’t know where it
occurred -- with Mr. Burns."
Judge Mertel saved his harshest words for Sebastian:
"Mr. Burns, you’re not immoral. You’re amoral. You are
an arrogant, convicted killer."
It's taken prosecutors a decade to sentence Atif Rafay
and Sebastian Burns to serve three consecutive life
terms, one for each life that was taken.
"Justice has been done for the three victims and our
community has held the two individuals accountable for
their conduct," says prosecutor Davidheiser: "There’s a
great deal of satisfaction in being part of that. A
great deal of satisfaction."
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Sebastian and Atif are in separate prisons in Washington
State. Both convictions are under appeal.
Sebastian's sister, Tiffany, left her job as a
television reporter to produce a documentary about false
confessions.
Judge Mertel has ruled that Sebastian and Atif can never
profit from any screenplay about their crime.
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