Selection from interview with Jamaal Beazley

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You can also watch the complete interview with Jamaal Beazley at the Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HDRI).

Jamaal Beazley is the brother of Napoleon Beazley, who was executed by the State of Texas on May 28, 2002. At the time of this interview, not quite six years later, Jamaal was living in Huntsville, finishing his senior year at Sam Houston State University and working at Walmart. Jamaal wanted to be interviewed by the Texas After Violence Project in front of The Walls, where Napoleon was executed, but the weather made it impossible to film outside. Thanks to Linda Dodson, Richard Lane, and Terrie Newman at the Huntsville Public Library for allowing us to conduct our interview there. (We arrived without notice, sopping wet and carrying a camera and tripod, asking for sanctuary -- and they graciously helped us without batting an eye.)

In this interview, Jamaal describes his memories of Napoleon in high school and their community in Grapeland. He continues with memories of visiting Napoleon on death row, and concludes with an account of the execution.

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 ruled 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.

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

For more information about the legal aspects of the 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 Ireland Gene Beazley, Father of Napoleon Beazley

Information about the interview:

Narrator: Jamaal Beazley
Date of interview: April 4, 2008
Place: Huntsville Public Library, Huntsville, Texas
Interviewer: Papa Diallo for the Texas After Violence Project
Videographer: Gabriel Solis
Also present: Virginia Raymond
Transcriber: Tony Keffler
Reviewer and proofreader: Kimberly Bacon
Equipment: Sony 1080i mini-HD DVcamcorder with Sennheiser external microphone
Relationship of interview team to narrator:
How this interview came about: In April 2008, Papa Diallo, Walter Long, Virginia Raymond, and Gabe Solis from the Texas After Violence Project drove to the Grapeland home of Rena and Ireland Beazley. There they met the Beazleys and spent some time socializing and playing with their grandson; Virginia and Gabe interviewed Ireland Beazley. Rena Beazley called her son, Jamaal, to ask whether he would grant the Texas After Violence Project an interview; Jamaal agreed and Gabe and Jamaal talked to arrange the time and meeting place in Huntsville. Papa, Gabe, and Virginia stayed with the Beazleys that night and made plans to drive to Huntsville in the morning. In the morning, a heavy rainstorm slowed our drive to Huntsville and made it impossible to interview Jamaal outside. Over lunch, we came up with an alternate plan.
Website editors:Virginia Raymond, Gabe 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: Gabe Solis
Video posted online by: Sabina Hinz-Foley
Text: Maurice Chammah and Virginia Raymond
Posting date: July 3, 2009

Copyright Jamaal 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, J., Diallo, P., & Solis, G. D. (Producers). (2009). Jamaal 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/node/317

MLA format:
Beazley, Jamaal. "Selection from interview with Jamaal Beazley." Interview with Papa Diallo and Gabriel Daniel Solis. Texas After Violence Project, 2009. Ed. Gabriel Daniel Solis, and J. J. Campbell. 3 July 2009.*
Texas After Violence Project. [Date YOU retrieve the video from this website; delete these brackets from your citation] http://www.texasafterviolence.org/jamaal.beazley

* 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.