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Atif and Sebastian

by David Rovics

Atif and Sebastian lived in Vancouver
 That's where they were from
 Atif's family moved to the USA
 And Sebastian thought he'd come
 They both went off to college
 Atif to Cornell
 What would happen at the end of his freshman year
 Who on Earth could foretell

 

 Atif and Sebastian went to a movie
 And to get some food to eat
 Then they drove back home
 To that suburban Bellevue street
 Inside what they saw
 Was far too much to understand
 That such things could be done
 By a human hand
 
 Atif's parents had been bludgeoned
 Blood and brains were everywhere
 Atif lifted up the shawl
 Upon his mother's matted hair
 He asked the skies above
 How could such a thing be done
 Then the two boys ran outside
 And they called 9-1-1
 
 Atif's father he had enemies
 Who wanted him dead it seems
 But from the time the cops arrived
 Upon this gruesome scene
 The only suspects they considered
 Were Sebastian and Atif
 They questioned them for days
 Amidst their shock and disbelief
 
 Without a bit of evidence
 They blamed them for this crime
 Though there were witnesses to prove
 They were elsewhere at the time
 They had gone across the bridge
 To Seattle's downtown core
 And someone else's DNA
 Was found amidst the blood upon the floor
 
 Whose DNA was that?
 The Bellevue cops just didn't care
 Though Atif's father's friend would soon
 Have his awful fate to share
 Just like Atif's dad
 He had a contract on his head
 And a few scant years later
 He also turned up dead
 
 The cops didn't have the evidence
 So they wiretapped a session
 With undercover thugs
 To scare up a confession
 The stories didn't match up
 The kids were scared and so they lied
 So the cops just changed their story
 To make it match the way the family died
 
 The judge and prosecution
 Just like the cops, they had no shame
 And entrapment and coercion
 Was the name of this railroad game
 The trial was a sham
 And the jury took the bait
 And now Atif and Sebastian
 Are living out their fate
 
 Serving up their lives
 In maximum security
 While the real killers
 Are somewhere running free
 Some might call this justice
 I don't know about you
 I call it putting innocent men in prison
 For a crime they didn't do