Texas executes James Broadnax for 2008 murders

James Broadnax, a 37-year-old Texas death row inmate, was executed by lethal injection Thursday evening for the 2008 robbery and shooting deaths of two music producers in Garland, a Dallas suburb. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeals.

Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, targeted Matthew Butler, 28, and Stephen Swan, 26, outside Butler's recording studio. Prosecutors said the men shot the victims during a car theft attempt and fled in Swan's Crown Victoria, leading to their arrest 170 miles away. Cummings, now serving life without parole, confessed in March that he fired the shots and persuaded Broadnax, who had no prior criminal record, to take responsibility. Court filings noted Cummings' DNA on the murder weapon and in one victim's pocket, with none from Broadnax.

Broadnax initially confessed to police and gave expletive-filled interviews to reporters shortly after his arrest, stating he pulled the trigger and expressing no remorse. His attorneys later argued he was under the influence of drugs, abused as a child and suicidal at the time, and did not retract the...