{"id":271204,"date":"2026-04-29T11:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/271204\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:03:12","slug":"texas-inmate-james-broadnax-set-to-be-executed-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/271204\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas inmate James Broadnax set to be executed Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Absent last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas death row inmate James Broadnax is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the murder of two music producers his co-defendant confessed to in March.<\/p>\n

Broadnax was 20 when he was sentenced to death in 2009 for the robbery and deadly shooting of Christian music producers Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, in Garland. Demarius Cummings, his cousin and codefendant, was sentenced to life for his part in the double capital murder.<\/p>\n

Now 37, Broadnax has unsuccessfully appealed his sentence multiple times in state and federal courts. His remaining petition asks the Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing that Broadnax did not pull the trigger. That application<\/a> instead points to a March confession by Cummings<\/a> asserting that he shot both producers and persuaded Broadnax, who had no criminal history, to take the blame.<\/p>\n

Broadnax admitted to shooting Swan and Butler in media statements after his arrest. His lawyers told the Supreme Court those confessions were given under the influence of drugs and while Broadnax was experiencing \u201csevere psychological distress and suicidal tendencies.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cummings\u2019 confession was initially raised in a petition<\/a> to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which rejected<\/a> Broadnax\u2019s claims April 7 without reviewing them, saying his lawyers should have raised them in an earlier appeal. A concurring opinion<\/a> by Judge Gina Parker said although Cummings had confessed to the killings, Broadnax has not recanted his own confession in the 16 years since his conviction.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court petition also argued prosecutors improperly struck potential jurors based on their race to create the nearly all white jury that convicted him. <\/p>\n

The Supreme Court rejected two other Broadnax appeals<\/a> Monday, one of which argued<\/a> trial prosecutors relied on \u201cracially inflammatory evidence\u201d by misrepresenting rap lyrics Broadnax had written. Several nationally recognized rappers and artists, including Houston rapper Travis Scott, filed briefs in support of that appeal.<\/p>\n

Texas Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin, called for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to intervene in Broadnax\u2019s case, describing a \u201cbiased, racially charged trial\u201d and arguing that an execution would be a misapplication of justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the physical evidence, his co-defendant\u2019s confession, and serious due process concerns \u2014 compounded by racial overtones \u2014 James deserves a new trial or, at minimum, a sentence that fits the crime,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cThe people of Texas deserve fair justice for all. To execute James would not be that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two men have been executed by the state in 2026, with three additional executions scheduled after Broadnax. Edward Busby, set to be put to death May 14, is next after being convicted of robbing a woman in 2005 and wrapping her face in duct tape, suffocating her.<\/p>\n

Texas has executed 598 inmates since resuming capital punishment in 1982. While new death sentences have declined since the turn of the century, Texas has accounted for more than a third of all executions nationally in the same time frame and more than the next four states combined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,6588],"class_list":["post-271204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-well-c-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}