Texas executes man who claimed innocence in 2008 double murder

by · UPI

April 30 (UPI) -- The state of Texas on Thursday evening executed a 37-year-old man convicted of a double murder in 2008 that he said he didn't commit and that another man has taken responsibility for.

James Garfield Broadnax was executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, located about 70 miles north of Houston. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. CDT, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told UPI in a statement.

He was killed for the murders of music producers Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler during a robbery outside a Garland, Texas, music studio, in mid-June 2008. After initially confessing to the crime, Broadnax claimed innocence while his co-defendant and cousin, Demarius Cummings, later admitted to being the gunman and having asked Broadnax to take the fall.

Broadnax used his last statement to reiterate his innocence.

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"Texas got it wrong. I'm innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself period," he said.

"Let this moment be what finally sparks the revolution that will be televised, none of it was worth it."

Broadnax was convicted and sentenced to death in January 2009. Court documents show that prosecutors argued at trial that Broadnax was the shooter, pointing to multiple interviews he gave after the crime in which he confessed that he and Cummings had traveled to Garland with the intent to commit a robbery and that, while Cummings had participated in the robbery, Broadnax alone was responsible for the murders.

Texas executed Broadnax hours after the Supreme Court on Thursday denied his request for a stay of execution and declined to hear his appeal.

Broadnax's attorneys argued that executing their client was unconstitutional because he did not kill anyone, a claim they said was corroborated by Cummings' DNA being found on the murder weapon and in the pocket of one of the victims.

In his March 11 admission, Cummings said that he convinced Broadnax to take the blame because he had prior convictions and his cousin did not have a criminal record aside from a marijuana possession conviction. Both were 19 at the time of the crime. Cummings was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Broadnax's attorneys also argued that the prosecution wrongly excluded all potential Black jurors due to their race and "invoked racial stereotypes throughout the trial," including introducing their client's rap lyrics as evidence that he was part of a gang, would commit further dangerous crimes and was akin to "the worst kind of predator" that could be seen on "Animal Planet."

"Weaponizing artistic expression against someone in court, without proving its relevance to the case, is a blatant violation of First Amendment rights," Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., said in a social media statement earlier Thursday, calling on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to use his powers to stop the execution.

"If the Supreme Court won't do its job, it's up to you."

Texas state Rep. Rhetta Andrew Bowers issued a statement prior to the execution stating there were "serious and unresolved questions" about Broadnax's case that shouldn't be ignored.

"To proceed under these circumstances is deeply troubling," she said.

"The weight of this decision is irreversible, and it demands not only legal finality, but moral clarity. When doubt exists, even in the smallest measure, we must choose caution over haste and humanity over finality."

Broadnax is the third person in Texas and the 10th person nationwide to be executed so far this year.

His sentence was carried out a little more than 90 minutes after Florida executed James Hitchcock for the 1976 rape and murder of his 13-year-old stepniece, Cynthia Driggers.