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Raul Meza
November 17, 2008
Meza trial adjourns until next week
Raul Meza’s legal challenge to the conditions of his prison release was again put on hold Monday after U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel heard some afternoon testimony and then adjourned Meza’s federal due process and equal protection lawsuit until next week.
Meza has been jailed since 2002 in part of the Travis County jail meant to transition prison inmates into society. He claims the restrictions on his mandatory release, a form of parole, are so strict that they are effectively a continuation of his incarceration. State parole officials say the conditions are reasonable given the criminal history of Meza, who in 1982 murdered and sexually assaulted Kendra Page, 8, at an Austin elementary school.
Much of the testimony Monday was about the sex offender conditions placed on Meza and whether he was given a chance to dispute the need for the conditions. Troy Fox, the administrator for the parole board, said that it would be too time consuming and costly to give every person eligible for such conditions a hearing. Meza lawyers with the Texas Civil Rights Project claims he is entitled to one by law
Meza’s lawyers say that although he is legally allowed to get a job and then live in the community, he can not get a job because he is only allowed to spend four hours a week at a job program for parolees and must be accompanied by a parole officer on job interviews.
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November 12, 2008
Child killer's bid for freedom continues next week
A state parole official testified Wednesday that convicted child killer Raul Meza lives in a halfway house-like section of the Travis County jail under restrictions that are perhaps the toughest in the state for anyone out of prison on parole or mandatory supervision, which is similar to parole.
Troy Fox, administrator for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, was the only witness at the second day of Meza’s federal due process and equal protection lawsuit in Austin’s federal court.
Meza’s court fight for freedom will continue next week as U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel adjourned the trial early Wednesday.
Meza, 48, has been living since 2002 at a section of the Travis County jail that is designed to transition former prison inmates into the community. He was released from prison that year under the state’s mandatory supervision law that requires the release of inmates whose good behavior credit and time served equals their sentence. Meza was convicted of murder in 1982 and sentenced to 30 years. He also was sentenced to four years for having a weapon in prison. The state’s mandatory supervision laws have been changed since Meza’s conviction.
Meza has been unable to secure a job required for his release into normal housing in the community and blames that on the restrictions placed upon him by parole officials. For example, Meza says that he only gets four hours a week to participate in a job search program and must have an armed guard accompany him to job interviews.
Meza’s lawyers are asking Yeakel to order state parole officials to ease restrictions on Meza. Lawyers for the state contend the restrictions are necessary to keep the community safe from Meza, who killed and sexually assaulted 8-year old Kendra Page in Southeast Austin.
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November 10, 2008
Child killer Raul Meza testifies in bid for freedom
More than 26 years after he killed 8-year-old Kendra Page in Southeast Austin, convicted murderer Raul Meza testified in federal court Monday on his lawsuit challenging the living conditions he is under since being released from prison due to the state’s mandatory supervision law.
Meza, who has lived in a minimum security unit of the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle since 2002, said that he enjoys little freedom and limited chances to get a job, which would enable him to move out of the jail and into the community.
Meza said, for example, that he only is allowed to spend two hours a week at Project Rio, a job program for parolees. He also complained that parole officials have taken so long to approve him to apply to jobs that they are filled with other candidates.
A trial on Meza’s lawsuit against state parole officials began this morning in U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel’s court in Austin.
Meza was sentenced to 30 years for killing Kendra, who was also sexually assaulted, according to her autopsy report. He also received a four-year term for having a weapon in prison. Read a Sunday Statesman story about his lawsuit and history here.
He was released on mandatory supervision and lived free for a year and a half in 1993 because his time served and good time credit equaled his sentence. He was sent back to prison on a curfew violation. When he again earned enough good time credit in 2002, he was sent to the Travis County jail complex in Del Valle.
His lawyers say he deserves greater freedom but because of the high-profile nature of his crime is subject to tougher conditions of release than other inmates released under similar circumstances and charged with similar crimes. They also contend the conditions were imposed without allowing Meza a chance to rebut their necessity.
Lawyers with the Texas attorney general’s office, who represent the defendants, argue that the conditions imposed on Meza are lawful and legitimate given his history.
While the trial is not about whether Meza is rehabilitated or remorseful, his lawyer Scott Medlock asked Meza how he felt about his crimes.
“I feel terrible,” Meza said. “I feel I destroyed a life, I destroyed a family. I destroyed two families. There’s nothing I can do or say that will change that.”
Celamaine Cunniff, who represents Texas Department of Criminal Justice defendants, challenged Meza about his testimony that it has taken parole officials an average of 90 days to approve him to pursue specific job prospects.
Cunniff read from records on scores of jobs that indicate that he received answers often the same day or the same week on such requests. Most were denied because the employer did not want to hire someone with Meza’s criminal history or because they were too close to child-safety zones, which includes places such as schools and playgrounds, Cunniff said.
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