U.S. v. Burns Case

        US v. Burns was a remarkable case challenging the death penalty in Washington state. As we know relationships between countries are important, and keeping these bonds requires abiding to agreements between them. The Burns Murder in Washington state shows just this when two 18 year old men, Glen Burns and Atif Rafay were convicted of murdering Tariq, Sultana, and Basma Rafay. It has been found that they did this act for insurance money, and profit from the sale of their home by the US government. 

       The conviction came about after they confessed to undercover Canadian policemen. Even though after confessing they claimed that the story was made up, there was enough evidence to make the story believable and Canada extradited them back to Washington. Rafay stated that he had profound admiration for his father's brilliance, generosity, and learning. He also claimed that he was "closer to his mother than anyone", and broke down when saying this during the investigation. However police of both U.S and Canada's departments didn't believe his act because of the fact that their story matched with the evidence that was found at the crime scene.

         "I'm going to continue to struggle for truth in this case. . . I won't betray their hopes and expectations for me" - Rafay

        "The story (of the murders) freaks you out. If you look for the evidence you won't find it because we didn't do it and that's the truth." - Burns

         "These boys did not kill anyone," said Burns' sister, Tiffany Burns. "They were wrongfully accused, wrongfully jailed and wrongfully convicted."

         However the United States has a treaty with the Canadian justice department that assures that fugitives would not be subject to the death penalty. In order to keep a good relationship with Canada, the US has decided to abide by the treaty and extradite Rafay and Burns to the US for trial. The benefit of this would be that the United States had more evidence from the murder to give a harsher sentence than Canada.

       Rafay and Burns were both sentenced to three consecutive life sentences each. One each would be sufficient, but three definitely proves a point that no men should profit from their crimes. As well as life sentences, both men were required to pay remedies for Rafay's families burial costs, as well as Canada's and the United State's investigative and legal costs, which are in the millions and have been paid by United States taxpayers. Both men will have to do a lot of work while in prison to repay for the damage they caused to both countries as well as the Rafay family. However unlike Burns, he believed Rafay was "genuinely remorseful."

       With all the evidence present, Burns and Rafay's lies didn't convince anyone of their innocence. They deserve to be in jail for three lifetimes, considering Rafay had the audacity to murder his own family members.