A Dallas County death row inmate’s attorneys are seeking to halt his scheduled execution after his cousin and co-defendant submitted a sworn confession claiming he – not the condemned man – was the triggerman in a 2008 Garland double murder.
James Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Dallas County jury in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio.
With 42 days until his scheduled execution, Broadnax filed a new appeal Thursday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, including a signed confession from his co-defendant claiming he, not Broadnax, had committed the killings.
In his confession, Demarius Cummings – Broadnax’s cousin – took full responsibility for the planned robbery and fatal shooting of Swan and Butler, both Christian music producers. Cummings said he persuaded Broadnax, then 19, to publicly claim he committed the killings because he had no prior criminal history, while Cummings had already been convicted of other crimes…