~ listen to a story

We are deeply grateful to each of these people for sharing their stories. We are currently processing entire interviews and transcripts -- when narrators agree -- for posting at the Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) of the UT Libraries. We expect the first set of twenty interviews to be fully accessible online by the end of 2010.

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 excerpt: Tina Duroy

The Texas After Violence Project conducted two interviews in 2008 at the request of Susanna Sheffer of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR). Sheffer was principally responsible for a collaboration between MVFHR and the National Association on Mental Illness (NAMI) to produce a report entitled Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness (2009).

The interview with Ms. Tina Duroy, excerpted below, was one of these special, directed interviews.
TAVP did not conduct the interview with Ms. Duroy under our regular protocol, 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. In general, we try to stay away from intervening and interrupting in people's stories.

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

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