With less than a month before his scheduled execution, attorneys for Texas death row inmate James Broadnax have filed a formal petition asking the state to either commute his death sentence or grant a 180-day postponement to allow new evidence to be fully examined.
Broadnax, 37, is set to die by lethal injection on April 30 for the 2008 murders of Christian music producers Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler outside their Garland studio. The petition, submitted this week, follows a bombshell declaration from his cousin and co-defendant, Demarius Cummings, that it was Cummings – not Broadnax – who fired the fatal shots.
The Confession
Cummings, already serving life without parole for the same crimes, signed a statement this year saying he came forward after learning of Broadnax’s execution date. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, he said he convinced the then-19-year-old Broadnax to take public responsibility because Broadnax had only a single prior marijuana conviction, while Cummings had a long, violent criminal record.
The confession lines up with forensic evidence from the original trial, where the only DNA found on the murder weapon or either victim’s body belonged to Cummings.
A Trial With Deeper Problems
The petition also details what attorneys describe as a set of serious constitutional failures at the 2009 trial.
Prosecutors allegedly used spreadsheets to track and systematically eliminate Black potential jurors – a practice that attorneys say violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 Batson ruling barring racial discrimination during jury selection.
Seven Black prospective jurors were ultimately cut, leaving a panel of 11 white jurors and one Black juror, who was seated only after the trial judge intervened. Yet no Batson objections were raised at the time.
Prosecutors also introduced Broadnax’s handwritten rap lyrics during sentencing, using them as evidence of his “violent mentality.” However, his attorneys have argued that courts across the country increasingly reject this practice as a violation of First Amendment protections.
Several big-name rappers – including Travis Scott, Young Thug, T.I., Fat Joe, and Killer Mike – have since filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax, arguing that rap lyrics deserve the same creative freedoms as any other art form in the legal system.
The Man On Death Row Today
Beyond the legal arguments, the petition builds a case for mercy based on the person Broadnax has become over his 17 years behind bars.
His legal team says that he serves as a peer counselor for fellow inmates and mentors at-risk youth through the Chris Young Foundation, participates in Faith-Based Programs, and is allegedly described by prison staff and inmates alike as a model prisoner.
Frank Williams Jr., a former death row inmate who worked alongside Broadnax in some of those programs, wrote in a clemency letter that a commutation “would be invaluable to the general population of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.” Williams said he believes “the truest good in this situation is to let him live and employ him to accomplish the greatest good within the inmate population.”
On April 14, Broadnax is scheduled to marry a law student from the United Kingdom, whom he met two years ago while she was researching capital punishment cases. Potentially 16 days before the state executes him.
What Comes Next
The Board of Pardons and Paroles will consider the petition and can recommend either a commutation or a reprieve to Gov. Greg Abbott.
Separately, Broadnax’s attorneys have two pending appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court – challenging the exclusion of Black jurors and the use of rap lyrics at sentencing – as well as a filing before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking relief based on Cummings’s confession. His legal team has also called on the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office to join a request for a stay while the DA’s office investigates the new evidence.
“To commute Mr. Broadnax’s sentence would not erase his crime or diminish its gravity,” the clemency petition states. “It would recognize something equally serious: that transformation is real, that character can be rebuilt, and that a life devoted to repair, mentorship, and moral leadership still has value.”
Stephen Swan was 26 at the time of his death, and Matthew Butler was 28, both Christian music creators and studio owners whose lives were cut short in the act of violence, a robbery that went wrong.
