The state of Texas plans to execute James Broadnax on April 30, 2026 for a double murder that he did not commit. The actual shooter, James's cousin, Demarius Cummings, was sentenced to life without parole for his role in the crime. Demarius now admits that he is the one who killed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler outside their music studio in Dallas in 2008, not James. His admission is corroborated by the presence of his DNA on the murder weapon and on one of the victims.

This new evidence fundamentally undermines the State’s case for James’s murder conviction and death sentence. Neither James’s conviction for capital murder nor his death sentence would have occurred had the jury known that Demarius, not James, shot the two victims. James should not receive a more severe punishment than the person who actually committed the killings.

Furthermore, James's trial was tainted by racial bias. Dallas County prosecutors deliberately and methodically removed all prospective Black jurors from the jury pool so that James, who is Black, was convicted by a nearly all-white jury. Outrageously, this has been a common practice in Dallas for decades.

James was just 19 years old at the time of the crime and had no history of violence, but during the sentencing phase of the trial, prosecutors also introduced rap lyrics a teenaged James had written, describing them as "gangster rap" and claiming they were his "self-admission" of his criminal "mentality" in their effort to persuade jurors he would be a continuing threat to society. These arguments exploited racial stereotypes traditionally associated with rap lyrics and the Black community to transform James’s artistic expression into a death warrant.  

Some of the biggest names in rap music have come together in support of James. In amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court, artists including Travis Scott and Killer Mike argue that rap lyrics are cultural and artistic expressions protected by the First Amendment and not indicators of desire or intent to do wrong.

In an interview with the New York Times, Killer Mike, the performer and political activist, said that the jury had been encouraged by prosecutors to confuse creative expression with real life.

“No matter how beautiful it sounds, or how horrific it may sound, it’s still just art,” he said of James’s lyrics. “It’s an interpretation of the human spirit. It is not an admission of guilt.” Other musical genres, he said, do not get the same treatment. Nobody believes that Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Or that Neil Young shot his baby down by the river — “dead, oh, shot her dead.” Or that Bob Marley shot the sheriff even as he spared the deputy.

In addition to the courts, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have the power to intervene in this case by granting a reprieve or commuting the death sentence.

Please join us in urging these authorities to stop the execution of James Broadnax and commute his sentence in the interest of fairness and justice.