https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/video/?20230216/20-35963/
Here’s a link to the court hearing. As difficult as it is to comprehend legalese, you might want to know some details to watch Rafay vs Jackson with some understanding.
Our attorney is Daniel Woofter of Goldstein/Russell.
“AEDPA” is the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, an appeal killing piece of legislation from the Clinton Administration, which has, over the years and through many Supreme Court hearings, made it more and more difficult to win a habeas petition in an appeal court, even one as reputedly liberal as the 9th Circuit. Much of the arguing revolves around the issue of whether the Rafay appeal is disqualified by AEDPA or, on the other hand, is AEDPA rendered irrelevant by an error made by the State of Washington Appeals Court?
INNOCENCE IS IRRELEVANT TO THE APPEALS PROCESS. That is why so few wrongly convicted people are released based on court hearings such as the one you can see here. AEDPA does not require the state courts to be without error, although particular errors, such as the one argued here, can invalidate the trial result.
Because of AEDPA, the prosecutor has the wind in his sails. He is effectively telling the court that they have no flexibility to rule in the defendant’s favor.
The date of the eventual ruling is unknown.
What blood evidence was found in the shower? Is The the attorney talking about the evidence found in the drain? Or blood on the walls of the shower? They would be interesting if there was unidentified blood in the drain
Hi Ray,
A couple of interesting questions you’ve posed Ray. First, because we have to await the appeal decision, new evidence is not yet in play. New evidence can be presented after the defendants (Atif and Sebastian) have exhausted their appeals.
Your question about blood in the shower: Whatever was tested–and many samples were not–was consistent with Tariq Rafay. That blood was in the shower. No results for the blood found on the shower door. No results for blood found in the garage. Sebastian Burns’ hair was found n the shower, which, considering he was a guest in the house and used the downstairs shower, was predictable. That did not stop the police/prosecutors, whose tunnel vision was evident all the way through, from making a big deal about it.
A pubic hair was found in Mr. Rafay’s bed. The investigators were certain that it would prove to be from Sebastian. That would clinch the case against them. However, it was not Sebastian’s hair, so, in a supreme example of tunnel vision, they deemed it irrelevant, holding that it was a “stray” picked up from outside the house, as if the people of Washington are shedding pubic hairs all over the state.