Selection from Ireland Gene Beazley interview

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Copyright 2008 by Ireland Gene Beazley and Texas After Violence Project

Ireland Gene Beazley is the father of Napoleon Beazley, who was executed by the State of Texas on May 28, 2002. In this interview, Ireland Beazley describes his own childhood; how he met his wife, Rena; and their three children. Ireland Beazley also talks about Napoleon in high school; what Ireland did when Napoleon was arrested; the trial and legal proceedings; and the effects of the tragedy on the family, including his son Jamaal. Finally, Ireland Beazley also explains how the family made it through the worst times with the support of their pastor and church, other Black churches and clergy, and their extended family and community.

Napoleon Beazley was 17 years old on April 19, 1994, when he fatally shot Mr. John Luttig in Tyler, Smith County, Texas. The death sentence and execution of Napoleon Beazley sparked international protest because many nations, and states within the U.S. had banned the death penalty for people who were juveniles at the time of their crimes. Within three years of the execution of Napoleon Beazley, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), banned the practice. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority that executing minors violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, "evolving standards of decency," and an "overwhelming" international consensus.

Ireland Beazley now works as a correctional officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Click to see the full transcript of Mr. Ireland Beazley's interview. Please cite the source if you quote from this interview.

For more information about the legal aspects of Napoleon Beazley's case, see the Napoleon Beazley page of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section, Juvenile Justice Committee or the International Justice Project Brief Bank.

The Two Lives of Napoleon Beazley, a play by John Fleming, ran at the Austin Playhouse on South Congress in Austin, Texas in 2005, and by the Incumbo Theater Company at the Flamboyan Theater of the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center in New York, N.Y. in 2008. Barry Pineo reviewed the Austin production in the Austin Chronicle on July 15, 2005.

See also: Selection from interview with Jamaal Beazley, brother of Napoleon Beazley.

Information about the interview:

Narrator: Ireland Gene Beazley
Date of interview: April 3, 2008
Place: Home of Ireland and Rena Beazley, Houston County, Texas
Interviewer: Virginia Marie Raymond for the Texas After Violence Project
Videographer: Gabriel Solis
Also present: Papa Diallo (entire interview); Walter Long and Rena Beazley (beginning of interview only)
Transcribers: Gabriel Solis, Tamica Jones, Sabina Hinz-Foley, Susanne Mason, & Mark Justin Evans
Reviewer and proofreader: Sabina Eva María Hinz-Foley
Interview length: 1:52:09
Length of this video clip: 14:42
Equipment: Sony 1080i mini-HD DVcamcorder with Sennheiser external microphone
Relationship of inteviewer team to narrator: Walter Long represented Napoleon Beazley for several years in Beazley's final appeals. Walter Long introduced Virginia Raymond to Ireland and Rena Beazley when the couple visited Austin in the spring of 2007. Gabriel Solis and Papa Diallo met the Beazleys for the first time on the afternoon of the interview.
How this interview came about: In-person and telephone phone conversations among Walter Long, Ireland Beazley, Rena Beazley, and Virginia Raymond
Website editors: Virginia Raymond, Gabriel Solis, & J. J. Campbell
Date of donation of interview: April 5, 2009
Date of instruction regarding web publication: April 5, 2009
Video imported from camera by: Gabe Solis
Video edited by: Sabina Eva María Hinz-Foley
Video posted online by: Sabina Eva María Hinz-Foley
Text: Virginia Raymond
Posting date: June 11, 2009

Copyright Ireland Gene Beazley and the Texas After Violence Project 2009. Permission for educational, non-commercial use granted provided the user fully attributes the source of the material and this website:

ASA format:
Beazley, I.G., Raymond, V. M., & Solis, G. D. (Producers). (2009). Ireland Gene Beazley
interview [Motion picture]. U.S.: Texas After Violence Project.
Retrieved [Month date year YOU retrieve the interview from this website; delete these brackets from your citation], from Texas After Violence Project Web site:
http://www.texasafterviolence.org/ireland.beazley

MLA format:
Beazley, Ireland Gene. "Selection from Ireland Gene Beazley Interview." Interview with Virginia Marie
Raymond and Gabriel Daniel Solis. Texas After Violence Project, 2009. Ed. Virginia
Marie Raymond, Gabriel Daniel Solis, and J. J. Campbell. 11 June 2009.*
Texas After Violence Project. [Date YOU retrieve the video from this website; delete these brackets from your citation] http://www.texasafterviolence.org/node/240

* This date is the date the video was posted online. This date will not change. The asterisk in the model citation is for instruction only; do not include it in your citation.