{"id":616552,"date":"2026-05-01T04:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/616552\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:14:14","slug":"james-broadnax-executed-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/616552\/","title":{"rendered":"James Broadnax Executed in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDespite massive support<\/a> from rappers, scholars, and lawyers \u2014 plus a new confession from his cousin in the double-murder case that saw them both convicted \u2014 37-year-old James Broadnax was executed by lethal injection Thursday evening at Texas State Penitentiary. He was given the death penalty<\/a> in part due to rap lyrics<\/a> he wrote as a teen.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2008, Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, both under the influence of PCP-laced weed, traveled to Garland, Texas, to steal a car. They targeted Christian-music producers Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, who were shot and killed in the melee. The cousins stole Swan\u2019s Crown Victoria and were arrested 170 miles away. At the time, Broadnax confessed to the murders, and, still high, gave two expletive-laden interviews to local news reporters bragging about the killings.\u00a0He was found guilty of the double murder. Then, during the sentencing phase, lawyers used rap lyrics found in Broadnax\u2019s car to convince jurors that he had a violent nature and would kill again if given the chance. Broadnax was sentenced to death.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn March, though, Cummings \u2014 who is serving life in prison \u2014 came forward and confessed to the murders, stating that his cousin had taken the fall because he had a less extensive criminal record. (As presented at trial, only Cummings\u2019 DNA was found on a gun used in the murders and on one of the victims.) Broadnax\u2019s legal team also asserts that Broadnax, who was abused as a child, was suicidal at the time of the murders and didn\u2019t care if he lived or died.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the last few months, Broadnax\u2019s legal team launched a full-scale effort to save him from the needle. In addition to bringing Cummings\u2019 confession to the Supreme Court, they also filed briefs urging judges to consider the racial makeup of the mostly-white jury that found Broadnax guilty and the use of rap lyrics in his sentencing. A cadre of rappers, including Killer Mike<\/a> and Travis Scott<\/a>, contributed to the rap lyrics filings, arguing that art should not be used in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAs Killer Mike wrote in a recent Vibe op-ed<\/a>: \u201cAcross the country, police and prosecutors have increasingly relied on rap lyrics at every stage of the criminal justice process \u2014 to open investigations, to charge suspects, to secure indictments, to win convictions, and to argue for severe sentences, including the death penalty. No other fictional form, musical or otherwise, is targeted like this in the criminal justice system. Unsurprisingly, the defendants in these cases are overwhelmingly young Black and Latino men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week, the Supreme Court rejected those appeals, asserting that Broadnax never recanted his confession, and pointing to the offensive interviews he did at the time of the murders as proof of his guilt. The Court also stated that Broadnax\u2019s claims of the jury\u2019s racial prejudice have been rejected several times at both the state and federal level. \u201cBy delaying until the last minute to raise his claims, Broadnax fails to make the requisite showing to justify interference by the federal courts,\u201d reads the response. \u201cAs shown below, Broadnax\u2019s claims have been available since trial or before. Furthermore, almost eighteen years have passed since Broadnax killed his victims.\u201d The court similarly declined to review the appeal related to lyrics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite massive support from rappers, scholars, and lawyers \u2014 plus a new confession from his cousin in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,57341,180574,3,267517,706,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-616552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-death-penalty","tag-killer-mike","tag-news","tag-rap-lyrics","tag-travis-scott","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}