Wrongfully Convicted?

In The Confession Tapes, two teenage boys are charged with the murder of one of their families. This took place in Washington state and the boys’ names were Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay. Atif’s family were the ones murdered. The boys had alibis and none of the forensic evidence the police had pointed to Atif or Sebastian, but they have both been convicted and have served twenty plus years already. What the police do have, though, is a confession on tape. The confession took place in Canada with some undercover Canadian cops trying to tell the boys that the police had evidence that pointed to them as the killers, which was a lie, there was no evidence that said the boys were the murderers. After Mr. Big, which is what the undercover operation is called, gained the boys’ trust, they asked the boys to tell them exactly what happened that night so they, the undercover cops, would be able to take care of all the evidence and it would lead to the boys not being arrested for the murders of Atif’s family. The undercover cops recorded all of their conversations with the boys, and got their confession on tape.

I like how the show shows not only the boys’ point of view and opinions with Sebastian’s father but also the police’s point of view of the case also, with a Bellvue detective. They also bring in many other people to show their opinions on the case, with some saying the boys absolutely did not murder Atif’s family, and also some that to this day that think they did, like one of the jurors from the trial. The show definitely lets you believe who you want to and therefore form your own opinion on the case.

The opinion I was able to form from the first two episodes, which covered the murder of Atif’s family, was that I do not think the Canadian police tactic called Mr. Big, which is illegal in the United States, should stand in the US courts as evidence. The boys were manipulated into their confession, which I believe could be a false confession. Imagine this: you and your best friend are the only suspects in a murder. You begin to overthink aspects of the murder and go through everything to be sure there is nothing there that could point to you and your best friend as the murderers. Then come along a group of guys claiming they want to help you and make sure you are not charged with the murder. They tell you the police have evidence against you that could put you two in jail the next day. Now even though you have solid alibis and didn’t murder anyone, you don’t want to be wrongfully convicted, what would you do? It’s really hard to say what anyone would do under that pressure. Keep in mind that these teenage boys, only 19 at the time, were going in front of Canada’s best manipulators while being unaware of it.

From what I was able to see of the confession of the two boys in the murder of Atif’s family, the boy’s stories didn’t always match up when separated and questioned alone. Many aspects were different, like where they put their bloody clothes and the baseball bat that was used to kill Atif’s family. Sebastian said he murdered the family by himself and naked, so there were no clothes to dispose of, then the two were together and they said they tossed the clothes in dumpsters, and then Atif said it was “out the window.” Little aspects of the murder that night were not solid on what happened.

There was evidence that pointed away from the boys, but evidently didn’t stand up in court. There were three “endorsed leads from other police organizations” that were mentioned in one interview with Sebastian’s former girlfriend. One was an FBI informant who had very specific details of what he knew, including that the family was murdered with a baseball bat, which the police did not know at the time this informant came forward.

The Mr. Big technique has come under a lot of scrutinies since this case in Canada. Some say it is unethical, which I would agree with. The boys who were convicted of Atif’s family’s murder were both charged with three consecutive terms, neither with the possibility of parole. They have come to the end of their ropes, Sebastian has used up all of his appeals and Atif has one remaining.