April 28: James Broadnax: Texas: Major (Unwelcome) Development; The Dallas Morning News (Reporter Jamie Landers) reports that the Texas parole board has unanimously denied clemency to James Broadnax two days before his scheduled execution…"The cousins were convicted of capital murder in separate trials. Broadnax, who was tried as the shooter, was sentenced to death, while Cummings, who was tried as his accomplice, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But on March 11, Cummings signed a written declaration stating it was he who shot Swan and Butler, not Broadnax. Cummings wrote that he persuaded his cousin to take the blame based on the circumstances of their criminal records. Cummings said he had already been convicted of other offenses, including burglaries, while Broadnax had a single charge for marijuana possession. "I want to clear my conscience and do not want James to be executed for shooting two people when I was the one who committed those acts," Cummings wrote. "It was my decision to come clean.""

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has repeatedly declined to intervene in Broadnax’s case.  The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on an appeal centered around Cummings' confession, but denied two other appeals  Monday, including one about using his rap lyrics as evidence against him and another based on allegations the state struck Black jurors from participating in his trial."

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STORY: “Texas parole board denies clemency to James Broadnax two days before scheduled execution,” by  Senior Breaking News Reporter Jamie Landers, published by The Dallas Morning News, on April 28, 2026. (Jamie Landers is a senior breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News. She is a graduate of The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, where she studied journalism and political science. Jamie previously reported for The Arizona Republic and Arizona PBS.)

SUB-HEADING: “The vote against recommending clemency or reprieve was unanimous."

SUB-HEADING: “James Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday in Huntsville. “

GIST: “The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency to James Broadnax, closing one of the final paths available to halt his Thursday execution. 

The vote against recommending clemency or reprieve was unanimous, according to a memo obtained Tuesday by The Dallas Morning News. 

The decision comes two days before Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Huntsville. 

Clemency in Texas is historically rare for death row inmates, with only three cases since the penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to data tracked by the Death Penalty Information Center. 

Texas governors can't issue a pardon, commutation, or reprieve without a written recommendation from the board, but they do have the authority to grant a one-time reprieve of execution.

In 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott commuted Thomas “Bart” Whitaker’s death sentence to life without parole. 

He listed several reasons, including the surviving victim’s opposition to execution and the fact that the man who killed the victims did not receive the death penalty.

Broadnax raised the latter in his own appeals. 

In June 2008, court documents say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, set out to rob Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan outside their music studio in Garland.

 By the time they left, Butler, 28, and Swan, 26, were dead, and the cousins had taken only $2 and a 1995 Ford.

BROADNAX AND CUMMINGS WERE BOTH 19 AT THE TIME.   

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has repeatedly declined to intervene in Broadnax’s case. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on an appeal centered around Cummings' confession, but denied two other appeals  Monday, including one about using his rap lyrics as evidence against him and another based on allegations the state struck Black jurors from participating in his trial."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/article/james-broadnax-clemency-denied-22228908.php?utm_content=cta&sid=62680b8e4f757f64bad68826&ss=P&st_rid=null&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=alert&utm_campaign=dlsn%20%7C%20breaking%20news

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system.   Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog. 

FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;