United States v Burns
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
United States v Burns | |
---|---|
The Court |
United States v Burns [2001] 1
The case essentially overruled Kindler v Canada (Minister of Justice) (1991) and Reference Re Ng Extradition (1991).[2] In Burns, the Supreme Court justices claimed to be considering different kinds of evidence.
Background
The
The extradition would be possible through an extradition treaty under which the
It was further argued that, while the Kindler case had held that it was not a breach of fundamental justice to extradite persons regardless of the risk of execution, the Burns case was special because it involved Canadian citizens; section 6 rights against exile were used to reinforce this argument.
Decision
The decision of the Court was unanimous and
The Court also declined to consider the case on the basis of the section 12 ban on cruel and unusual punishments. This was because
While section 12 was of little direct consequence in Burns, there was precedent that the government of Canada has some responsibility to consider possible outcomes of extradition under section 7 of the Charter (and section 12, like other legal rights, helps to define the broad principles of section 7).[5]
Section 7 guarantees
Extradition might then breach fundamental justice because, according to precedent in Canada v Schmidt, if the harm faced by the extradited persons is serious enough, it "shocks the conscience" of the Canadian population. Still, the Kindler case had indicated that extradition regardless of the risk of execution was not a breach of section 7. The Court in Burns thus had to overrule this.
While acknowledging Kindler's "balancing process", the Court wrote that various factors considered in this process will change with the times, and in this case the Court was confronted with more of the "practical and philosophic difficulties associated with the death penalty".
In considering the relationship between fundamental justice and execution, the Court wrote that "philosophic" views of fundamental justice that viewed execution as "inconsistent with the sanctity of human life" were not subject to judicial review, and that the Court could instead consider more legal issues such as "the protection of the innocent, the avoidance of miscarriages of justice, and the rectification of miscarriages of justice where they are found to exist." Hence wrongful convictions were especially to be feared in cases involving execution.
There were arguments that allowing a risk of execution could be compatible with fundamental justice, since the accused had committed a crime in another state and thus no longer had the benefits of
The Court also cited Reference Re BC Motor Vehicle Act to note that international law was important in defining fundamental justice, and while there was no international law against execution per se, international politics are moving in that direction, and more and more states have abolished the death penalty.
The Court paid a fair amount of attention to the risk of wrongful conviction, and how the Court had a duty to protect the innocent. This duty is based in part on
While "[t]hese miscarriages of justice of course represent a tiny and wholly exceptional fraction of the workload of Canadian courts in murder cases," the Court wrote, "where capital punishment is sought, the state's execution of even one innocent person is one too many." The Court also acknowledged the "death row phenomenon" as a section 7 concern, noting the psychological stress that would be involved if one is sentenced to die.
The Court cited statements from parliament on capital punishment. The judgement noted that parliament abolished the last death penalty under Canadian law in 1998 with amendments to the National Defence Act. The court cited statements by the Cabinet to characterize this and other acts of Parliament. "In his letter to the respondents, the Minister of Justice emphasized that 'in Canada, Parliament has decided that capital punishment is not an appropriate penalty for crimes committed here...'."
In balancing the arguments that this extradition could be compatible or contrary to fundamental justice, the Court concluded that many of the goals of the Crown could have been met even if Canada had requested that the US would not seek the death penalty. There was thus an infringement of section 7, and the Court then had to consider whether it could be justified under section 1. The Court ruled the infringement was not justified.
While the government had a sufficient objective for infringing the right, namely working with the US cooperatively to fight crime and to keep good relations with the US, it was not necessary to risk execution for these objectives to be met. Asking that the death penalty should not be sought should not hurt relations with the US because the extradition treaty allows for this. There was also a concern about keeping dangerous criminals out of Canada, but the Court replied that criminals might not find extradition with the risk of a life sentence more attractive than the risk of execution, and thus it was not proven criminals would flee to Canada.
Resulting extradition and trial
In March 2001, less than a month after the ruling, Burns and Rafay were extradited to the United States with assurances from prosecutors handling the case that they would not seek the death penalty. During the trial in 2004 (it was delayed by a number of factors), prosecutors claimed that Burns and Rafay plotted to kill Rafay's family and share the money from an insurance policy and the sale of the family home. Burns claimed that his confession to undercover RCMP officers that he and Rafay killed Rafay's family was the result of coercion by the police. Defense lawyers noted that no forensic evidence linked the two men to the crime.[6][7][8][9]
In May 2004, both men were found guilty of three counts of murder and each was subsequently sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.[10][11][12]
Burns's family immediately began to fight to have the case overturned on appeal, alleging numerous problems with the investigation and improper rulings by the judge.[11] In 2007, Sebastian Burns's sister produced a documentary about coercion by police. The family is continuing its efforts, and a website has been posted that claims to debunk the entire case.[13]
In July 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled to limit the admissibility of evidence obtained in the sort of RCMP Mr. Big undercover operations that were used to obtain confessions from Burns and Rafay.[14]
This ruling states that the admissibility of such evidence may be limited in cases of very young or vulnerable suspects. Burns and Rafay were among the youngest suspects ever targeted in an RCMP undercover operation. In late 2014, both men filed paperwork to seek an appeal in light of the 2014 Supreme Court of Canada decision.[15] The murder was the subject of two episodes of the 2017 Netflix documentary-series The Confession Tapes[16] and True Crime Garage podcasts.[17][18]
See also
References
- ^ SCC Case Information - Docket 26129 Supreme Court of Canada
- ^ Peter Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada. 2003 Student Ed., page 992.
- ^ "KIRO 7 News - 48 Hours Mystery Unravels Bellevue Murder Case". Kirotv.com. 2007-09-13. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
- ^ The Fifth State - True Confessions - Timeline of Events - Aired October 14, 2011, cbc.ca; accessed October 13, 2017.
- ^ Bowal, Peter; Saini, Preet (May 7, 2015). "Whatever Happened To…U.S. v. Burns: Extradition and the Death Penalty". lawnow.org. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ Filmmaker explores issue of coerced confessions, CTV News, August 26, 2007; retrieved December 14, 2008.
- ^ Michael D. Reid, "I'm tired of being quiet" Archived 2012-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, canada.com, February 4, 2008; retrieved December 14, 2008.
- ^ Ethan Baron, Innocent? Or guilty? Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, The Province, November 5, 2008; retrieved December 14, 2008.
- ^ "Vancouver men on trial for triple murder", CBC News, November 24, 2003; retrieved December 14, 2008.
- ^ Friends for Life by Linda Stasi, New York Post, September 15, 2007.(retrieved on December 14, 2008.
- ^ a b Brian Hutchinson, "Parents of a triple murderer vow to fight: 'We should have screamed out loud'", National Post, November 13, 2004.
- ^ "B.C. men sentenced to life for triple murder", CBC News, October 23, 2004; retrieved December 15, 2008.
- ^ Jane Seyd,"Killer's sister looks at 'Mr. Big' confessions" Archived 2012-11-09 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver Courier, August 29, 2007; retrieved December 14, 2008.
- ^ R. v. Hart, scc-csc.lexum.com, July 31, 2014.
- ^ "Current Appeal Status". Rafayburnsappeal.com. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- ^ "The Confession Tapes". imdb.
- ^ Dawson, Raechel (October 20, 2017). "'The Confession Tapes' Re-Opens the Triple-Murder Case of Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay". seattleweekly. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
- ^ Rafay, Atif (April 12, 2011). "On the Margins of Freedom". thewalrus.ca. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
External links
- Full text of Supreme Court of Canada decision available at LexUM and CanLII
- Rafay-Burns Appeal Site