Imagine that for almost two decades, you tell yourself and anyone who’d listen that your brother is innocent.
Delia Perez Meyer has repeated that thought like a mantra since 1999, when her brother, Louis Castro Perez was convicted of the horrific killings of three people in Austin.
Castro Perez was sentenced to death, but the family and a team of lawyers in Washington and Austin, including attorney Barry Scheck made famous after the OJ Simpson acquittal, are convinced DNA evidence could clear Perez of the crimes.
Now, Delia Perez Meyer is waiting to hear at any moment if the Supreme Court of the United States will give her brother’s case a second look.
Meyer fought from the beginning for DNA testing after another person confessed to the murders, the railroad killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, who was executed in 2006. Police say in September 1998, two women were beaten and one girl was strangled in Austin.
“But when he talked about the murders, he did not discuss killing the little girl,” Meyer says. “So therefore, we were unable to use that.”
Meyer says her brother knew one of the women killed, which is why his DNA is present at the scene. As an advocate for her brother turned activist against the death penalty, Meyer says the best-case scenario for her is that the Supreme Court will stay her brother’s execution and, eventually, all executions.
“My brother may not survive this but I know he will be part of the solution to abolish the death penalty,” Meyer says.
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.