James Broadnax is scheduled to be executed Thursday in Texas unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in at the last minute. The 37-year-old is fighting to halt the death sentence he received in 2009 for the robbery and fatal shooting of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in Garland.
Broadnax was 37 when he filed the petition that now sits before the court, and his lawyers say it matters because a March confession from his cousin and codefendant, Demarius Cummings, says Cummings shot both men and persuaded Broadnax to take the blame. Broadnax had admitted after his arrest that he shot Swan and Butler, but his legal team argues the new confession, along with other claims, should have kept the case alive.
That petition asks the justices to stop the execution on the ground that Broadnax did not pull the trigger. It also says prosecutors improperly struck potential jurors based on race, producing the nearly all white jury that convicted him. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected those claims on April 7 without reviewing them, and Judge Gina Parker wrote separately that Broadnax has not recanted his own confession in the 16 years since his conviction.
The court has already turned away two other Broadnax appeals on Monday. One said prosecutors relied on racially inflammatory evidence by misrepresenting rap lyrics Broadnax had written, drawing support from several nationally recognized rappers and artists, including Houston rapper Travis Scott. The other filings have not changed the central fact that Broadnax has lost repeatedly in state and federal courts and now faces the state’s deadliest sanction with no guarantee of relief.
Texas Rep. John Bucy urged the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to intervene, calling the trial biased and racially charged and warning that an execution would be a misapplication of justice. He said, “Given the physical evidence, his co-defendant’s confession, and serious due process concerns — compounded by racial overtones — James deserves a new trial or, at minimum, a sentence that fits the crime.” He also said, “The people of Texas deserve fair justice for all. To execute James would not be that.”
The broader stakes are plain. Texas has executed 598 inmates since resuming capital punishment in 1982, and two men have already been put to death in 2026. If Broadnax is executed Thursday, he will be the latest in a state that has three additional executions scheduled afterward, including Edward Busby on May 14. The Supreme Court’s decision, or silence, will settle whether Broadnax dies while still arguing that the man who says he fired the shots is the one the courts should have believed.