Research protocol for public actor interviews - last revised July 6, 2009

Public Actors in Texas Death Penalty Politics
Texas After Violence Project (TAVP) - Oral History Research Protocol

Primary Investigators:

[Student’s name here] AND
[Name of faculty member who will supervise student here] AND
Virginia Marie Raymond, J.D., Ph.D., Texas After Violence Project

Telephone:

[Student’s telephone number here] AND
[Telephone number of faculty member who will supervise student here] AND
Texas After Violence Project: 512.916.1600

Mailing address:

[Mailing address of student here] AND
[Mailing address of faculty member who will supervise student here], AND
Virginia Raymond, Texas After Violence Project: P.O. Box 41476, Austin, Texas, 78704

Street Address:

[Street address of student here] AND
[Street address of faculty member who will supervise student here], AND
Virginia Raymond, Texas After Violence Project, 611 South Congress Avenue, Suite 350 Austin, 78704

Website:

[Website of faculty member who will supervise department and/or her department website here] AND
Texas After Violence Project, http:www.texasafterviolence.org

Introduction

The Texas After Violence Project (TAVP) conducts qualitative research into the effects of capital punishment on individuals and communities in Texas.

Our first research project interviews people directly affected by capital murders; the investigation, prosecution, and defense in capital cases; incarceration; and executions.

In this research project, Public Actors in Texas Death Penalty Politics, we interview public actors so as to better understand the politics of criminal justice and the death penalty in Texas and to document the histories of social movements engaged in promoting the rights of people in the criminal justice system.

Public Actors

By public actors, we mean advocates, public actors, or others who have written, spoken out, lobbied, litigated, protested, or otherwise acted in the public sphere on criminal justice issues including the death penalty. These public actors and the causes they espouse go under a variety of names: abolition, abolitionists, death penalty abolitionists, reformers, victims’ rights advocates, criminal justice advocates, prison reformers, and more.

Public actors, for purposes of this study and research protocol, advocate for the rights of people involved in the criminal justice system such as crime victims and their family members, people charged with or indicted for criminal offenses, witnesses, jurors, incarcerated persons, family members or friends of incarcerated persons, people facing state execution and their loved ones. For instance, spokespersons or members of all of the following organizations are public actors: American Bar Association (ABA); Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP); Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT); Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE); the NAACP; Texas District & County Attorneys Association (TDCAA); Justice for All; StandDown; the Texas Catholic Conference; Texas Coalition Against the Death Penalty; Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ); Texas Inmate Families Association (TIFA); the Texas Legislature; and the Texas Moratorium Network. Consular staff, individual lawyers, politicians, and scholars may also be public actors eligible to be interviewed for this project.

While some of these people have come to their work because of personal experiences, or have experienced profound losses or trauma in the course of their work, many others are involved in public discussion, debate, or policy making without being directly personally and emotionally affected.

For the purpose of this research protocol, “public actor” means a person who is interested and engaged on issues of criminal justice including the death penalty, but who is or feels some distance from the experiences of loss, trauma, incarceration, and execution. We have a separate interview protocol for people directly affected by capital crimes and the capital punishment process, such as family members of murder victims or executed persons, first responders to crime scenes, participants in capital murder legal proceedings, correctional officers, and those who conduct or witness executions. That protocol is called the "Research protocol for personal narrative interviews."

In this document, the terms "interviewee," "interview subject," "person interviewed," "narrator," and "the public actor" are used interchangeably. The terms "Texas After Violence Project" and "TAVP" are used interchangeably.

There is no privilege for an oral history under the law.

Narrators must understand that the interview is not privileged information. The Texas After Violence Project agrees to keep the interview private until such time as the narrator approves its release, but this confidentiality is not protected by law (as opposed to communications with a spouse, member of the clergy, attorney, physician, or other health provider which are privileged and which would be protected under most situations). A court could conceivably order that the Texas After Violence Project release a tape, DVD, interview transcription, correspondence, or other materials.

Method

We will conduct oral history interviews, search public records, and study news reports and other secondary materials about these sets of tragedies. The following protocol applies only to oral histories of public actors. In this protocol, the terms "narrator," "interview subject," "the public actor," and "interviewee" will be used interchangeably.

Identifying and locating public actors

We will identify advocates who we would like to interview from news reports, newsletters of public actor and professional organizations, speakers at protests and other events, witnesses who testify in front of the Texas Legislature or any of its committees, and word of mouth.

Excluded from interviews

We will not interview anyone who, to our knowledge and to the extent that we can reasonably determine,

1) is under eighteen (18) years of age,

2) is incarcerated (whether in a jail, state jail, prison, committed to a mental hospital or rehabilitation program, or any other locked facility where she or he does not have the liberty to leave at will),

3) is on parole or probation,

4) is hospitalized,

5) has a physical or mental health problem that the interview process would obviously complicate or aggravate,

6) has a family member or friend who has been charged with a capital crime and is in any phase of criminal or appellate proceedings, or

7) who lacks the mental capacity to give full informed consent to the interview.

Not all of these excluding conditions are always obvious, and any of these circumstances might arise at any time. We will not provide medical or psychological examinations before the interviews. We will rely on potential interviewees to let us know if any of these excluding conditions apply to them or to simply withdraw from the interview process at any time without having to provide us with a reason (see “Withdrawing from the Study” and “Termination of Interview by TAVP” below).

Contacting public actor interview subjects

We will contact public actors in person, by telephone or e-mail, or by letter, depending on what method(s) of communication are available and most expedient.

Interviews

1) Location

We will conduct interviews in any safe and reasonable place that the public actor chooses: the person’s workplace, an organization’s office or meeting space, a school, a public space, or in the person’s home. The interview may also take place in the Texas After Violence Project office, if the public actor is visiting Austin from her or his home.

2) Language

All interviews will be conducted in person and in the oral history subject’s preferred language (we expect that typically a person would want to be interviewed in her or his native language, but we will leave this decision up to the individual.)

3) Persons present

A minimum of two TAVP personnel will conduct each interview; one TAVP person will interview and another TAVP person will record the interview. Under no circumstances will anyone conduct an interview on behalf of TAVP alone. The person to be interviewed may invite any person or persons she wants to be present. Occasionally, for supervision or training purposes, another TAVP person may be present to observe the interview.

4) Consent

At the outset of the interview, the interviewer will again explain the purpose of the study, the procedures, and the rights and control retained by the interview subject. Before the interview begins, the interviewer will review the consent form with the interviewee and ask her or him to sign it.

5) People coming into an interview that has already started

If, after the interview has already started, the narrator -- on her or his on initiative -- invites another person to participate in the interview, the interviewer should courteously suspend the interview and explain the purpose and protocol of the study to the new person and ascertain whether or not the person would like to participate. If the person does want to participate, the interviewer will formally ask for the person’s content on the videotape or audiotape, and ask for the person to sign a consent to be interviewed form. At that point, the interview may continue.

If the original narrator does not invite the new person to participate, the interview should end. The interviewer and the narrator may reschedule the interview. (See also “Termination of Interview”)

6) Length of interview

In most cases, the narrator will determine the length of the interview. In rare cases, the interviewer may decide to terminate an interview if, for instance, it becomes obvious that the narrator is in physical pain caused or aggravated by the interview. Interviews may be as short as 45 minutes and as long as three or four hours, with breaks at the hour or anytime the narrator, interviewer, or videographer needs to take a break. If the narrator has more to say, and if the narrator consents to be interviewed further, a second or continuing interview may take place on a different day. (See also “Termination of Interview”)

7) Recording of interview

TAVP will record interviews with audio-visual equipment, specifically a mini HD-DV camcorder. If the narrator does not want to be filmed, the TAVP cameraperson will cover the camera lens. TAVP will also use one or more back-up recorders, such as use a digital voice recorder or a cassette recorder, in case the audio portion of the camera fails.

8) Termination of interview

The narrator has the right to interrupt or terminate an interview at any time and withdraw from this study for any reason or no reason. The TAVP interviewer may also terminate an interview unilaterally for any good reason. Reasons to terminate an interview might include illness or emergency; the interview is outside and a storm arises; the interview has continued for more than three hours and the interviewer or videographer is unable to continue because of the lateness of the hour or another commitment.

Process after the interview

1) Request for donation of the interview and interview materials immediately following the interview

When the interview is over, before leaving the interview site, the interviewer will ask the person to donate the interview material (recording, transcript, consent forms, and any additional material) to TAVP. The donation form will ask the narrator to designate a date certain on which the material may be made public. That date may be the date of consent, or at a later date named by the narrator.

The donation form will make clear that the interview material will be kept both by the Texas After Violence Project for educational, non-commercial use, and that the interview material will also be donated to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History (CAH) at the University of Texas, in Austin, and to other public libraries and non-commercial educational organizations or archives so that the public may access the material.

If the narrator agrees to donate the interview and related materials immediately following the interview, she or he signs a written form verifying that agreement. The narrator dates this donation form, signs her or his full name, and provides her or his date of birth on the form.

2) Option to donate interview and materials following review of interview tape or DVD

The narrator may choose to view the DVD of the interview before donating the interview and material. In this case, the Texas After Violence Project will provide the narrator with DVD of the interview as soon as practicable.

3) Narrator direction regarding web publication

At the time that the narrator donates her or his interview and related material, the Texas After Violence Project representative will ask the narrator whether or not she or he consents to publication of the materials on the internet (or on the web or online). No interview, transcript, or other information related to the interview will be published online without the narrator's specific written consent.

Provision of recording to person interviewed

Whether or not the narrator has signed a donation form immediately following the interview or has opted to wait until viewing the interview tape or DVD, TAVP will provide the person interviewed with a complete, unedited audio or audiovisual recording of the interview as soon as practical. TAVP will provide this copy within two weeks, unless there are extenuating circumstances that render TAVP unable to do so. This copy of the recording belongs to the person interviewed; she or he may do anything with it that she or he sees fit.

Copyright

The interview is co-created and jointly owned by the narrator and the Texas After Violence Project.

Narrator's rights: The narrator may do anything with the interview and materials that he or she wishes, with no limitations.

Texas After Violence Project's rights: Once the narrator donates the interview and materials to the Texas After Violence Project and the designated date for public access has arrived, the Texas After Violence Project may use the interview and related materials for any educational and non-commercial purpose, including sharing these materials with public libraries and non-commercial educational institutions and archives.

The Project Duration

[Name of educational institution] faculty and students will begin research as soon as the IRB approves the study, and will continue for one year, at which point the researchers may request continuing approval.

The Texas After Violence Project has already begun its research and will continue through June 2010, with the possibility of continuation depending on need to interview more people and availability of financial support for the project.

Potential discomforts and risks to persons interviewed

There are no foreseeable discomforts or risks.

Possible benefits

The interview process will give the public actor the opportunity to record her or his observations, activities, and belief; to have her or his story made available to the public; and to obtain a recording the interview for whatever purpose s/he uses.

Costs to persons interviewed

The only cost to a person who consents to be interviewed is her or his time.

Will people receive compensation for agreeing to be interviewed or for donating the interview and materials to the Texas After Violence Project?

No. There will be no financial or other compensation for this study, either at the time of the interview or later.

What if an interview subject is injured because of the study?

We do not anticipate that the study would cause any injury. The Texas After Violence Project will not compensate any person for injury during the course of the study.

If a potential interview subject does not want to take part in this study, what other options are available to her or him?

If a person does not want to take part in this study, there will be no consequences. The Texas After Violence Project seeks to interview only those people who want to be interviewed.