Tiana Broadnax, a British law graduate from London, says she will “never forget” the words her husband, death row inmate James Broadnax, spoke to her hours before his execution in Texas. The couple married just two weeks before he was put to death by lethal injection on April 30 in Huntsville, Texas.
James Broadnax, 37, was sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of Christian music producers Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside a studio in Dallas in 2008. He and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, both 19 at the time, attempted to rob the men while under the influence of weed and PCP. Cummings received life without parole, while Broadnax was initially sentenced to death after confessing, a confession he later retracted, citing his drug use.
A Fight to Prove Innocence
Tiana met James through her academic research and became convinced of his innocence, campaigning to stop his execution. Efforts to halt the execution highlighted that Cummings's DNA was found on the murder weapon and the victim's clothing. Cummings also released a video confession, stating: “I’m really gonna tell it like it’s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer.”
Before the execution, Dr Phil McGRAW raised awareness of the case, saying: “I’m not here today to tell you that James Broadnax is innocent. I’m not here to tell you he's guilty. What I am here to do is look at the facts, all of them. And ask the hard questions that someone needs to be asking because a man’s life is on the line and the clock is running out.”
The Morning of the Execution
On the morning of the execution, Tiana visited James and found him in tears. She told LADbible: “I got him his favourite Powerade and beef jerky because he couldn’t eat. So I said ‘just eat something’ and he was just crying. And I’ll never forget. He leaned back and he said, ‘I never knew how loved I could be. I never knew I was worthy of being fought for.’”
She continued: “And I said, ‘You need to know you are loved. People are fighting for you.’ And he kept saying to me, ‘I never knew people could fight for me. I never knew I was worthy.’”
“How do you console somebody who is at the last hours of his life? And he just kept crying and we cried and we took our last pictures and 12-o-clock comes and I get an escort team to pull me out to take me out.”
Final Moments in the Death Chamber
After being escorted away, Tiana followed the van transporting James to Huntsville. When she reached the death chamber, she saw him strapped to a gurney with his arms crossed in a crucifix style. She described him as looking like a “flipping experiment” and recalled his final words: “He was like, ‘I love you queen, don’t give up, I love you queen, don’t give up.’ As he said ‘don’t’, his head jerked back and he went [gasping noise] and then his eyes rolled up and he dropped. And I screamed.”
