"Hurricane" Carter says Rafay convictions wrong
Nearly four years after a King County jury found Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns guilty of the 1994 triple slaying of Rafay's family in Bellevue, the two men have attracted a well-known ally — Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and an organization he founded to help those wrongly convicted.
Carter is a former world middleweight contender who spent 20 years behind bars for three New Jersey murders he didn't commit. His story has been immortalized in a Bob Dylan song and a movie starring Denzel Washington.
Tuesday, Carter addressed the Rafay-Burns case during a brief appearance at the University of Washington School of Law.
He came to Seattle at the request of Burns' sister, Tiffany Burns, who has filmed a documentary, "Mr. Big," attacking the type of sting operation used by Canadian police to elicit confessions from her brother and Rafay that helped convict them.
Now 70, Carter said he has reviewed the movie, the evidence and the trial transcript and is convinced Burns and Rafay didn't get a fair trial.
"They were kids, teenagers, who were confronted and conned by these professional interrogators," Carter said of Burns and Rafay, who were 18 at the time of the killings of Rafay's family. "Canada is now the breeding ground for wrongful convictions because of the Mr. Big sting."
But James Konat, one of the King County deputy prosecutors who tried the case, said undercover operatives from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police "were masterful" in drawing out details of the crimes. The confessions were only a part of the "overwhelming evidence" presented to the jury, he said.
Tariq Rafay, his wife, Sultana, and their autistic daughter, Basma, were found bludgeoned inside their Somerset neighborhood home in July 1994.
A year later, Burns and Atif Rafay — who grew up in Vancouver, B.C., and returned to Canada days after the murders — were captured on video talking about the slayings during a meeting with an undercover Mountie they knew only as "Al" in a Victoria, B.C., hotel room.
At trial, the prosecution argued that Burns and Rafay were coldblooded killers who giggled about the slayings. But the defense countered that the two told Al what he wanted to hear because they were afraid he would have them killed.
Tiffany Burns' movie takes on the very concept of the "Mr. Big" sting, in which a suspect is approached by someone who purports to be part of a criminal organization. That person eventually introduces the suspect to the crime boss — Mr. Big, who offers help in return for the suspect disclosing his crime.
Carter was first made famous by the 1976 Dylan song "Hurricane." After his release from prison in 1985, he moved to Canada and founded the Toronto-based organization Innocence International.
False confessions, Carter said Tuesday, play a huge role in wrongful convictions.
Sebastian Burns and Rafay, both now 32, have been behind bars for 13 years, first in Canada awaiting extradition and then here. Each is serving three life sentences in state prisons — Burns at Walla Walla and Rafay in Monroe. Carter planned to visit Rafay on Tuesday.
The Innocence Project, a separate national organization that uses DNA to exonerate people who are wrongfully convicted, is also involved in their case.
In December, lawyers representing Burns and Rafay submitted briefs appealing the men's convictions. King County prosecutors expect to file their own briefs by early summer.
Next week, the Washington Supreme Court is expected to hear a motion filed by Burns to represent himself at his appeal, Konat said.
Meanwhile, "Mr. Big" premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival in October and has been shown in Amsterdam.
Tiffany Burns is a former Cleveland television-news anchor who quit her job two years ago to work for her brother's release. She is trying to get "Mr. Big" screened at this year's Seattle International Film Festival.
Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com
