HOUSTON — A North Texas man claims he was not the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago, prosecutors say. Misused rap lyrics He wrote to secure him death penalty He faced execution Thursday evening.
James Broadnax was sentenced to death for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a music studio in suburban Dallas. Prosecutors say Broadnax and his cousin Demaryius Cummings shot and robbed Steven Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors say Broadnax, 37, admitted to the shooting, telling reporters during prison interviews that “I pulled the trigger” and that he had no remorse.
Broadnax was scheduled to receive a lethal injection just after 6 p.m. CST at the state prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Houston.
His lawyers asked the US Supreme Court to halt the execution, and filed several final appeals after lower courts refused to halt the lethal injection.
His lawyers have focused their final appeals on two issues: Cummings recently admitted being the shooter; Broadnax’s constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors excluded potential jurors during his trial based on race.
“I’ll really say it as it’s supposed to be told, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Pollard and Steve Swan,” Cummings said recently from prison in a video produced as part of efforts to stop Broadnax’s execution.
Broadnax’s lawyers say in their Supreme Court filings that Cummings’ confession “is supported by the fact that his DNA, not Broadnax’s, was found on the murder weapon and in the pocket of one of the victims.”
Broadnax said in the video that his confession was false because at the time he was not concerned about his life. Broadnax’s lawyers say he was under the influence of drugs during the television interviews.
He also apologized to the Butler and Swan families for their participation in the theft.
“I wish I could show them my soul, so they could see how sorry I am. I’m so sorry for everything that happened,” Broadnax said.
His attorneys also allege that prosecutors separated all seven potential black jurors based on their race, “using a spreadsheet during jury selection that included only the names of each black juror,” according to court documents. One black juror was later returned to the jury. Broadnax black.
In the 1986 ruling known as Batson vs. Kentuckythe United States Supreme Court held that excluding jurors because of their race violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Broadnax’s lawyers had argued in a previous appeal that prosecutors 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 obtain a death sentence. A number of top-tier rappers, incl travis scott,T.I and Killer Mikefiled briefs with the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.
But the Supreme Court rejected this appeal, as well as another appeal that focused on how forensic evidence was presented at his trial.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied Broadnax’s request for a 180-day reprieve or commutation of his death sentence.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office called Cummings’ admission that he was the shooter “questionable new evidence.” Court documents also said that Broadnax’s claims that potential black jurors were being singled out for removal were “completely baseless” because those jurors were struck not because of race but because of their answers during questioning, including some’s opposition to the death penalty.
Teresa Butler, Matthew Butler’s mother, asked for the execution to go ahead.
“This alleged confession from Cummings is just a stalling tactic by Broadnax’s desperate defense team. It’s all a lie,” Butler wrote in a social media post.
If the death sentence is carried out, Broadnax will be the third person executed this year in Texas, which has historically had more executions than any other state.
About an hour before Broadnax’s scheduled execution Thursday, James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to be executed in Florida, accused of beating and strangling his 13-year-old niece to death.
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