Tiana Krasniqi, a 31-year-old law school graduate from Lewisham, south-east London, says she is experiencing panic attacks and flashbacks after watching her husband James Broadnax being executed by lethal injection in a Texas prison on Thursday evening.
The couple married last month in a brief 20-minute ceremony at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a maximum-security facility. Krasniqi first contacted Broadnax as part of her legal studies and later campaigned to spare his life after he was convicted of the 2008 murders of two Christian music producers.
In a series of TikTok posts, Krasniqi described the final moments: 'I saw him strapped on the gurney... I screamed, I dropped, I screamed.' She said Broadnax read a statement before the injection, causing his head to 'jerk back' and him to groan before his eyes closed. 'I screamed so loud... I was screaming "Open your eyes, open your eyes, I love you, I'm sorry, I was supposed to stop this",' she wrote.
Krasniqi revealed that in the days leading up to the execution, Broadnax told her he was scared and maintained his innocence. She had hoped Texas Governor Gregg Abbott would intervene, but the execution proceeded. She also shared a letter Broadnax wrote on the morning of his death, in which he called her his 'world' and 'one true only love'.
Broadnax was convicted of killing Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in a recording studio car park in Garland, Dallas, nearly 18 years ago. However, his cousin Demarius Cummings, who was jailed for life without parole for the same crime, later claimed he was the shooter. Cummings said in a prison video: 'I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swann.' Lawyers for Broadnax argued that forensic evidence supported Cummings' confession, as his DNA—not Broadnax's—was found on the murder weapon.
Krasniqi dismissed claims that the execution was humane, stating: 'My husband died suffering.' She said she has been allowed to see his body at a funeral home but was warned not to touch his arm.
