Texas Executes Broadnax After Final Appeal Rejected Despite Cousin’s Confession

By Ayden Runnels, The Texas Tribune

HUNTSVILLE, TX — Texas death row inmate James Broadnax was executed Thursday evening hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal citing his co-defendant’s confession.

The 37-year-old was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. on Thursday after being administered a lethal injection. In his final words, Broadnax asserted one last time that he was innocent of the double murder for which he was sentenced to death, and asked the families of the victims for forgiveness.

“I prayed to God for your forgiveness. Despite what you think about me, I hope to God that prayer was answered,” Broadnax said. “But no matter what you think about me, Texas got it wrong. I’m innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself period.”

Broadnax was sentenced to death in the 2008 robbery and deadly Garland shooting of two music producers, Matthew Butler, 28, and Stephen Swan, 26. Broadnax’s final appeal centered around a confession from his codefendant and cousin, Demarius Cummings, who claimed he had shot the two men, not Broadnax.

His Supreme Court appeal argued that his sentence was unconstitutional in light of the confession. It also argued that DNA evidence corroborated Cummings’ confession because only his DNA was found on the gun and one of the victims.

Cummings’ confession was introduced in a previous appeal filed March 19 in Dallas County district court and with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In the confession, Cummings said he persuaded Broadnax, then 19, to take the blame for the killings because he had no criminal history. The Texas court rejected the appeal April 7.

The appeal also argued that trial prosecutors had improperly struck all prospective Black jurors and “invoked racial stereotypes” throughout the trial.

The Supreme Court struck down two other appeals from Broadnax on Monday, one arguing that trial prosecutors had misrepresented rap lyrics Broadnax had written and another that had additional arguments about the jury’s racial makeup.

Broadnax is the third man Texas has put to death in 2026 and the 599th since the state resumed use of the death penalty in 1982. Three other executions are scheduled through the rest of the year, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The next execution scheduled is for Edward Busby on May 14. Busby was convicted of capital murder in 2005 for robbing a woman and wrapping her face in duct tape, suffocating her.