Execution Report: James Broadnax

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A jury convicted Broadnax of the capital murder of Stephen Swan in January 2009 and sentenced him to death. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

After Broadnax's sentence was pronounced, relatives of the victims were permitted to speak to him. Teresa Butler, Matthew Butler's mother, said "You stole our son. I couldn't say it better than you said it yourself; it would have been better if you'd never been born. Broadnax laughed at Mrs. Butler while she was speaking to him.

Butler's widow, Jamie Butler Cole, referred to a letter she said Broadnax wrote her, in which he apparently expressed regret or asked for forgiveness, and said that she forgave him for her sake, not his. "It gives me freedom to live my life," Cole said.

Stephen Swan's sister, Deborah Swan, told a reporter for the Dallas Morning News that she did not receive a letter from Broadnax and that she could not forgive him.

Broadnax's lawyer, Brad Lollar, told the reporter, "James has repeatedly expressed to me that he was remorseful for the pain he's caused." Lollar added that Broadnax asked him to warn everyone to stay away from PCP.

Demarius Dwight Cummings was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He remains in custody as of this writing.

In March 2026, after Broadnax's execution date was announced, Cummings gave a sworn statement in which he confessed to killing Swan and Butler. Cummings stated that both he and Broadnax were high on marijuana and PCP at the time. He pulled the trigger on the murder weapon, but convinced his cousin to confess to the murders because Cummings had a lengthy criminal record, and Broadnax did not.

"I have always maintained that James was the one who shot Mr. Swan and Mr. Butler, but the fact that James received a death sentence for these crimes, while I was the one who shot the victims, has been weighing on my conscience, particularly as I have become more spiritual during my years in prison."

Texas officials said that they had no plans to pause Broadnax's execution in light of Cummings's confession. Under Texas law, a defendant can be found guilty as a party to capital murder regardless of whether he personally killed the victim.

Broadnax's final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court presented a claim that the submission of rap lyrics written by Broadnax at his punishment hearing, and the state's characterization of them as "gangster rap," constituted an unconstitutional racial bias. The litigants also re-raised an allegation that already been raised throughout every earlier stage of his appeals, which was that racial bias was used in the selection of his jury to exclude black jurors. Broadnax's lawyers also argued that the finding of guilt via the so-called "law of parties" must explicitly be made at the defendant's trial, not applied afterward.

Robert Patterson, the lone black member of Broadnax's jury, was also the foreman. He told a news reporter, "race was not an issue with respect to the decision we made."

On social media, Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler's mother, wrote, "This so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax's desperate defense team. Its all a lie."

A Texas judge refused to stop Broadnax's execution, noting that in his seventeen years on Death Row, Broadnax never recanted his televised confession.

News reports by so-called "mainstream" outlets such as the Associated Press covering Broadnax's execution scrubbed all references to his televised confessions from their reporting once Cummings claimed to be the shooter. "Prosecutors said Broadnax, 37, confessed to the shooting," read the AP's story. Even one of the TV stations that broadcast Broadnax's confession to its audience in 2008 failed to mention it in a story that made multiple references to Cummings's confession.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt Broadnax's Thursday execution on the jury bias and rap lyrics claims. On Thursday afternoon, the court issued another decision not to halt the execution because of Cummings's confession.

Seven of the victims' relatives watched Broadnax's execution from a viewing room adjacent to the death chamber. Tiana Krasniqi, a British woman who Broadnax married on April 14, watched from another room. Reporters wrote that she leaned against the window with her arms spread and screamed "I love you."

"I prayed to God for your forgiveness," Broadnax said in a defiant last statement. "Despite 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'm innocent. The facts of my case should speak for itself. Period."

The lethal injection was then started. Broadnax said "Don't give up" as the chemical entered his body. His next attempt to speak ended with a gasp. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m.

By David Carson. Posted on 1 May 2026.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, KERA News.