James Broadnax was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a double murder
According to court documents James Broadnax would shoot and kill Stephen Swan, 26 and Matthew Butler, 28 as they were leaving their music producing studio
James Broadnax would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Update- James Broadnax was executed on April 30 2926
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When Was James Broadnax Executed
James Broadnax was executed on April 30 2026
James Broadnax Case
After deliberating 10 hours, a jury decided Friday that a man convicted in a robbery that left two Christian music producers dead should receive the death penalty.
On Aug. 12 a Dallas County jury convicted James Broadnax, 20, of Texarkana, of capital murder in the fatal shooting of Stephen Swan, 26, of Carrollton.
Broadnax is also accused of killing 28-year-old Zion Gate records owner Matthew Butler.
Both men were fatally shot in a parking lot after leaving their Garland recording studio on June 19, 2008.
Texarkana police arrested Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, hours after the shootings. The pair was found in Swan’s car during a traffic stop.
Cummings is also charged in the both killings. His trial has not yet been set.
Broadnax admitted to the slayings in jailhouse interviews with two reporters, including NBCDFW’s Ellen Goldberg.
When Goldberg asked Broadnax in the interview if he had any remorse for killing Swan and Butler, he shook his head and said, “Do I look like it?”
While the defense told the jury that Broadnax was abused and abandoned as a child, prosecutors pointed to his televised confession and said he deserved the death penalty.
“He has not shown any remorse from the beginning,” said Assistant District Attorney David Alex. “And he has not shown any, all the way to the end of the trial.”
Prosecutors said Broadnax sometimes laughed during the victims’ statements.
“I lost my first born son when he was only 26 years old,” Swan’s tearful mother, Jean, told the courtroom’s audience after the sentence was announced.
Broadnax still faces a capital murder charge in Butler’s death
“You stole our son,” his mother, Theresa, told Broadnax. “It would have been better if you would have never been born. Smile and laugh if you think that’s funny.”
Defense attorneys never put Broadnax on the stand to testify, and told reporters after the trial that Broadnax’s interviews were the most likely reason he received the death penalty.
“I’ve never seen a guy talk his way onto death row before, but we have now,” said defense attorney Brad Lollar.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/man-who-confessed-to-killings-gets-death-sentence/2119352/
James Broadnax Execution
A North Texas man who claimed he wasn’t the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who said prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence was executed Thursday evening.
James Broadnax was pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Houston.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Broadnax’s attorneys to stop his execution.
He was condemned for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. Prosecutors say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life without parole.
Broadnax was defiant in a final statement in which he also sought forgiveness from the victims’ relatives. Seven relatives, including parents of each of the victims, were present.
“I prayed to God for your forgiveness,” he said, when asked by the warden if he had a final 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,” he said.
The execution also was punctuated by screams of “I love you” from his wife, who also was among witnesses to the punishment. She was emotional at times during the procedure, leaning up to the death chamber window with arms spread, and had to be helped out of the prison.
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began, Broadnax urged his supporters to keep fighting. “Don’t give up,” he said, and was stopped in another mid-sentence by a gasp. He shook his head briefly and all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later, at 6:47 p.m. CDT.
Prosecutors said Broadnax, 37, confessed to the shooting, telling reporters during jailhouse interviews that “I pulled the trigger” and that he had no remorse.
His lawyers had focused his final appeals on two issues: Cummings had recently confessed to being the shooter; and Broadnax’s constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors eliminated potential jurors during his trial on the basis of race.
“I’m really gonna tell it like it’s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swan,” Cummings said recently from prison in a video created as part of the efforts to stop Broadnax’s execution.
His attorneys also alleged prosecutors dismissed all seven potential Black jurors on the basis of their race, “utilizing a spreadsheet during jury selection that bolded only the names of every Black juror,” according to court documents. One Black juror was later reinstated to the jury. Broadnax was Black.
In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors because of their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Broadnax’s attorneys had argued in an earlier appeal that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights by using some of the rap lyrics he wrote to portray him as a violent and dangerous person in order to secure a death sentence. A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott,T.I. and Killer Mike, had filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.
Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler’s mother, had asked that the execution proceed.
“This so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax’s desperate defense team. Its all a lie,” Butler wrote in a post on social media.
Broadnax was the third person put to death this year in Texas and the 10th in the country. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state.
About an hour before Broadnax’s execution on Thursday, Florida put to death James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, for beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death.
Texas executes man who denied being the shooter in fatal 2008 robbery | AP News
