HUNTSVILLE (AP) \u2014 A North Texas man who claimed he wasn\u2019t the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who said prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence was executed Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
James Broadnax was pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Houston.<\/p>\n
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Broadnax\u2019s attorneys to stop his execution.<\/p>\n
He was condemned for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. Prosecutors say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler\u2019s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life without parole.<\/p>\n
Broadnax was defiant in a final statement in which he also sought forgiveness from the victims\u2019 relatives. Seven relatives, including parents of each of the victims, were present.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prayed to God for your forgiveness,\u201d he said, when asked by the warden if he had a final statement. \u201cDespite what you think about me, I hope to God that prayer was answered. But no matter what you think about me, Texas got it wrong. I\u2019m innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself. Period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The execution also was punctuated by screams of \u201cI love you\u201d from his wife, who also was among witnesses to the punishment. She was emotional at times during the procedure, leaning up to the death chamber window with arms spread, and had to be helped out of the prison.<\/p>\n
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began, Broadnax urged his supporters to keep fighting. \u201cDon\u2019t give up,\u201d he said, and was stopped in another mid-sentence by a gasp. He shook his head briefly and all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later, at 6:47 p.m. CDT.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said Broadnax, 37, confessed to the shooting, telling reporters during jailhouse interviews that \u201cI pulled the trigger\u201d and that he had no remorse.<\/p>\n
His lawyers had focused his final appeals on two issues: Cummings had recently confessed to being the shooter; and Broadnax\u2019s constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors eliminated potential jurors during his trial on the basis of race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really gonna tell it like it\u2019s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swan,\u201d Cummings said recently from prison in a video created as part of the efforts to stop Broadnax\u2019s execution.<\/p>\n
His attorneys also alleged prosecutors dismissed all seven potential Black jurors on the basis of their race, \u201cutilizing a spreadsheet during jury selection that bolded only the names of every Black juror,\u201d according to court documents. One Black juror was later reinstated to the jury. Broadnax was Black.<\/p>\n
In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors because of their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n
Broadnax\u2019s attorneys had argued in an earlier appeal that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights by using some of the rap lyrics he wrote to portray him as a violent and dangerous person in order to secure a death sentence. A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott,T.I. and Killer Mike, had filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n
Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler\u2019s mother, had asked that the execution proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax\u2019s desperate defense team. Its all a lie,\u201d Butler wrote in a post on social media.<\/p>\n
Broadnax was the third person put to death this year in Texas and the 10th in the country. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state.<\/p>\n
About an hour before Broadnax\u2019s execution on Thursday, Florida put to death James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, for beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HUNTSVILLE (AP) \u2014 A North Texas man who claimed he wasn\u2019t the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who said prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence was executed Thursday evening. James Broadnax was pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection at the … Continue reading North Texas man executed as his cousin claims he was shooter in fatal 2008 robbery<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news-archive"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 06:38:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1502687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503053,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502687\/revisions\/1503053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1502687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1502687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1502687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}