watch & listen to interviews

We are deeply grateful to each of these people for sharing their stories. Beginning in May 2010, we will post entire interviews and transcripts -- when narrators agree -- at the Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) of the UT Libraries.

personal narrative interview excerpts

Ireland Gene Beazley
Father of Napoleon Beazley and correctional officer
Grapeland, Houston County, East Texas

Jamaal Beazley
Brother of Napoleon Beazley
Huntsville, Walker County, East Texas

Captain Arturo Cárdenas, Travis County Sheriff's Office
Colleague of Deputy Keith Ruíz
Austin, Travis County, Central Texas

Christopher M. Gunter
Defense attorney for James Carl Lee Davis and Kenneth McDuff
**Caution: This interview contains a graphic description of an especially gruesome crime.
Austin, Travis County, Central Texas

Iliana Marie López
Friend of Brandon Shanks
San Antonio, Bexar County, South Texas

Roger Wade, Public Information Officer, Travis County Sheriff's Office
Colleague of Deputy Keith Ruíz
Austin, Travis County, Central Texas

directed interview excerpts

The Texas After Violence Project conducted two interviews in 2008 at the request of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), which was preparing a report in collaboration with the National Association on Mental Illness (NAMI). The report, by Susannah Sheffer, is entitled Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness (2009). TAVP did not conduct these interviews under either of our normal protocols (personal narrative interview or public actor interview). These are not regular TAVP interviews in which we ask narrators to tell their stories; rather, at MVFHR's request, we specifically asked questions about the onset and severity of mental illness.

Tina Duroy
Sister of James Blake Colburn
Conroe, Montgomery County, East Texas

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