JUST IN: James Broadnax Executed In Texas For a Double Murder Committed to Steal $2 

  Two men are dead. The reason? $2. Just hours ago, the state of Texas executed James Broadnax for a double murder committed during a robbery that netted the killers less than the price of a fast food drink. But here’s where this case gets complicated. His co-defendant just confessed to being the actual shooter.

So, who really pulled the trigger? And was justice actually served tonight? It’s 2008, Garland, Texas, a suburb just outside Dallas. Steven Swan and Matthew Butler are leaving Butler’s recording studio late at night when two men approach them in the parking lot. Within seconds, both men are shot dead. The killers flee with almost nothing.

Police quickly arrest James Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings. Broadnax, in a moment that would define the next 18 years of his life, sits down with reporters and says, on camera, “I pulled the trigger. I have no remorse.” Those words would follow him all the way to the execution chamber. At trial, prosecutors didn’t just use that confession, they also used rap lyrics Broadnax had written, lyrics they said proved he was violent and dangerous to push for the death penalty.

 It worked. Broadnax was sentenced to death. His cousin, Cummings, tried separately, received life without parole. Same crime. One man on death row, one man alive in prison. That disparity would become the foundation of nearly two decades of appeals. Here is where everything gets murky. Just before the execution, Demarius Cummings, the man who walked away with a life sentence, recorded a video from inside prison.

 His words, “I’m really going to tell it like it’s supposed to be told. It was me. I was the killer. I shot Matthew Butler. I shot Steve Swan.” And critically, Cummings’ DNA, not Broadnax’s, was found on the murder weapon. Broadnax’s attorneys raced to the Supreme Court. The answer came back, denied. Broadnax’s legal team raised three separate last-minute appeals.

First, Cummings’ confession and the DNA evidence. Second, prosecutors allegedly used a spreadsheet that bolded only the names of black potential jurors, striking all seven of them from the panel, a direct violation of the 1986 Supreme Court ruling in Batson versus Kentucky. Third, those rap lyrics used to condemn him.

Travis Scott, T.I., and Killer Mike all filed legal briefs supporting that appeal. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied every request. The Supreme Court denied every request. The execution moved forward. At 6:47 p.m. Thursday, James Broadnax was pronounced dead by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

In his final statement, he was defiant, but also asked forgiveness from the victims’ families. His wife, watching from the witness room, screamed, “I love you,” as the drugs took effect. Matthew Butler’s mother had asked the state to proceed. She called Cummings’ confession, quote, “just a stall tactic.” Broadnax was the third person executed in Texas this year alone.

Two men were murdered for $2. A man was executed for it tonight. But the man serving life in the same prison just said, on video, that he was the one who actually fired the gun. Was this justice for Steven Swan and Matthew Butler? Or did Texas execute the wrong man? I genuinely want to know what you think. Drop it in the comments below.

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