Death Penalty or Murder?

Is Texas about to execute an innocent man because a near­ly all-white jury was influenced by a teenager's rap lyrics?

"James Broadnax, a Texas death-sen­tenced pris­on­er, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 30, 2026," writes Hayley Bedard for Death Penalty Info. "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."

Broadnax, who is Black, was convicted of murder by a nearly all-white Texas jury in 2009.

As Elly Brinkley of PEN America notes, "state prosecutors relied extensively (but selectively) on 40 pages of lyrics Broadnax had written as evidence of his 'future dangerousness,' a required and determining factor in capital sentencing for criminal defendants under Texas law."

At trial, the jury heard that Broadnax’s DNA was not found on the trig­ger or the right grip of the gun used in the mur­ders, while the DNA of his code­fen­dant and cousin Demarius Cummings was.

"In other words," writes Brinkley — and despite DNA evidence that incriminated someone else — "the state used Broadnax’s own artistic expression to condemn him to death."

Texas executes a lot of people

While 23 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty and four others have temporarily stopped executions via executive hold, Texas executes more people than any other state.

According to Texas Death Penalty Facts, "The State of Texas has executed 598 people since 1982... Seventy-two percent of Texas’s executions occurred between 1996 and 2015."

The peak years for executions in Texas coincided with the governorships of George W. Bush (1995-2000) and Rick Perry (2000-2015).

While it has always seemed odd to me that followers of Jesus Christ insist it's impossible to execute an innocent person, in their separate campaigns for president, both Bush and Perry assured Americans that their state was committed to getting the death penalty right.

"I don't believe we've executed a single innocent person," said Bush in March 2000, a year in which Texas put 40 people to death.

During a 2011 Republican presidential debate, Rick Perry was asked if he was concerned about the possibility of executing an innocent man. His reply: "No, sir. I've never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place."

The Death Penalty Info website disagrees. During the Bush and Perry years, Texas executed (murdered?) at least five likely innocent people: David Spence (1997), Gary Graham (2000), Claude Jones (2000), Cameron Todd Willingham (2004) and Lester Bower (2015).

While the number of executions in Texas has dropped to the single digits in 9 of the past 10 years, the state shows no sign of eliminating the death penalty.

James Broadnax is one of four people scheduled to be executed in Texas in 2026.

Is Texas about to execute another innocent man?

Texas plans to execute Broadnax on April 30 even though in March 2026, his cousin and codefendant Demarius Cummings confessed that he, not Broadnax, shot the vic­tims.

According to Death Penalty Info: "Mr. Broadnax has a sep­a­rate appeal pend­ing before the United States Supreme Court, where his attor­neys con­tend that pros­e­cu­tors used racial­ly charged lan­guage and improp­er­ly relied on rap lyrics a teenaged Mr. Broadnax had writ­ten to argue he deserved a death sen­tence as a con­tin­u­ing dan­ger to soci­ety. In the fil­ing, his attor­neys remind the court that the r­ap lyrics were pre­sent­ed to a near­ly all-white jury, and note that rap lyrics are exclu­sive­ly used against Black defendants, while oth­er music and cre­ative expres­sions are not used against white defen­dants."

According to PEN America, "In the almost 20 years he’s been incarcerated, Texas-based poet and artist James Broadnax has used his art to hold onto his sense of purpose. In addition to his writing, he has established art classes in prison and served as a mentor in his community. His poetry and the work he has helped inspire are a reminder of the power of creative expression."

PEN America has published four of his poems here.

In this video, Broadnax reads his poem "Cloud View."

Learn more about the campaign to stop his execution at jamesbroadnax.org.

Thanks for reading and sharing! And an extra special THANK YOU to all my paid subscribers, past and present, and contributors to my "coffee fund." While paid subscriptions are always welcome, I’m continuing to offer all content free, so choosing a “free” subscription means you'll never miss an issue of UNPRECEDENTED.

To support this newsletter without subscribing, consider a one-time tip at Buy Me a Coffee.