Decode list arguments to unicode

Fixes #711.
Fix test bug with utf-8 encoding
Fix py3 bug, only decode if it's a binary type
Merge branch 'fix-list-unicode' into develop

Closes #712

* fix-list-unicode:
  Fix py3 bug, only decode if it's a binary type
  Fix test bug with utf-8 encoding
  Decode list arguments to unicode