Texas Prisoner Asks Courts to Intervene in Scheduled Execution as New Confession Raises Serious Doubt Over Original Conviction

James Broadnax, a Texas death-sen­tenced pris­on­er, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 30, 2026. He was con­vict­ed in 2009 by a Dallas County jury for the mur­ders of two music pro­duc­ers, Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler, who were shot and killed out­side their record­ing stu­dio in 2008. On March 19, 2026, a lit­tle more than a month before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, attor­neys for Mr. Broadnax filed a new appeal and a sworn affi­davit from his code­fen­dant and cousin Demarius Cummings, in which Mr. Cummings admits that he, not Mr. Broadnax, shot the vic­tims. The new fil­ing asks the Texas courts to stay Mr. Broadnax’s exe­cu­tion date, to remand the case to the tri­al court, and to ulti­mate­ly vacate Mr. Broadnax’s death sentence.

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