HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas executed James Broadnax on Thursday evening for the 2008 robbery and murder of two men, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene and his cousin insisted in a prison video that he, not Broadnax, fired the fatal shots.

Broadnax, 37, was condemned for the killings of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler. According to prosecutors, Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot the two men in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland and stole from them. Cummings was sentenced to life without parole.

The execution proceeded shortly after the high court denied Broadnax’s request for a stay. In his final moments, Broadnax was defiant. “I prayed to God for your forgiveness,” he said after the warden asked if he had a final statement. “Despite what you think about me, I hope to God that prayer was answered. But no matter what you think about me, Texas got it wrong. I’m innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself.” Seven relatives of the victims, including the parents of both men, were present.

The lethal injection was punctuated by screams of “I love you” from Broadnax’s wife, who was among the witnesses. She leaned toward the death‑chamber window with her arms spread and became emotional during the procedure, eventually being helped out of the prison. As the sedative pentobarbital took effect, Broadnax urged his supporters, “Don’t give up,” before a gasp cut him off. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. CDT.

The conflicting accounts of who pulled the trigger lay at the center of Broadnax’s final appeals. Prosecutors pointed to jailhouse interviews in which Broadnax told reporters, “I pulled the trigger,” and said he had no remorse. But in a video recorded recently from prison, Cummings directly challenged that narrative. “I’m really gonna tell it like it’s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swan,” Cummings said.

The victim’s mother rejected Cummings’s account. “This so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax’s desperate defense team. Its all a lie,” Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler’s mother, wrote on social media. She had asked that the execution proceed.

Broadnax’s attorneys also raised a claim under Batson v. Kentucky, the 1986 Supreme Court ruling that forbids excluding jurors because of their race. They alleged that prosecutors struck all seven potential Black jurors, “utilizing a spreadsheet during jury selection that bolded only the names of every Black juror,” court documents stated. One Black juror was later reinstated to the jury. Broadnax was Black.

In an earlier appeal, the defense argued that prosecutors violated Broadnax’s constitutional rights by using some of his rap lyrics to suggest he was a violent and dangerous person. Several prominent rappers, including Travis Scott, T.I., and Killer Mike, filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.

Broadnax was the third person executed in Texas in 2026 and the 10th in the country. Texas has historically carried out more executions than any other state. About an hour before Broadnax’s execution on Thursday, Florida put to death James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, for the beating and choking death of his 13‑year‑old step‑niece.

Juan A. Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70.