FLASH
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A Texas death row inmate, James Broadnax, was executed by lethal injection Thursday evening, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. The 37-year-old was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m., insisting in his final moments that he was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.
In his final words, Broadnax apologized to the victims' families, but also declared that justice had been misplaced. "I am innocent, the facts of my case must speak for themselves," he said before his execution.
Broadnax was convicted of killing two music producers, Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan, during a 2008 robbery in Dallas. His latest appeal relied on a confession from his cousin and associate, Demarius Cummings, who claimed he was the perpetrator of the murders and had convinced Broadnax to take the blame.
According to the defense, DNA evidence supported this version, as only Cummings' DNA was found on the murder weapon. However, the courts in Texas and later the Supreme Court did not consider this evidence sufficient to reopen the case or to stop the execution.
The appeal also included allegations of irregularities during the trial, including the exclusion of black jurors and the use of racial stereotypes by prosecutors, as well as the misinterpretation of rap lyrics written by Broadnax.
The execution took place in the presence of his wife, Tiana Krasniqi, who watched the proceedings from the witness box and reacted with strong emotions to the final moments of his life. The couple had married just a few days earlier inside prison, having met through correspondence in 2024.
After the execution, Krasniqi sharply criticized the American authorities, raising concerns about the manner in which the sentence was carried out. She stated that Broadnax had shown signs of suffering during the procedure and questioned the ethics of execution by lethal injection.
This is the third execution carried out in Texas in 2026 and the 599th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1982. The case has reignited debate over the use of capital punishment in the US, particularly regarding the fairness of judicial processes and the standards of its implementation.
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