As she saw her husband die in front of her, the British wife of a US death row killer cried out, “I love you,” and pushed herself against the window of his execution chamber.
After receiving a fatal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, which is roughly 70 miles north of Houston, James Broadnax, 37, was declared dead on Thursday night.
He was convicted of the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a music studio in a Dallas suburb.
According to the prosecution, Broadnax and his cousin Demarius Cummings shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the Garland parking lot of Butler’s recording studio. Cummings received a life sentence without the possibility of release.
In a last message, Broadnax defiantly asked the relatives of the victims for forgiveness. When the warden asked him if he had a final word, he replied, “I prayed to God for your forgiveness.” There were seven relatives present, including the parents of each victim. I pray to God that my prayer was heard, regardless of what you think of me. Regardless of your opinion of me, Texas made a mistake. The facts of my case should speak for themselves; I am innocent. “Period,” he said.
Tiana Krasniqi, his 31-year-old British wife from Lewisham in southeast London, screamed “I love you” during the execution.
She had to be assisted out of the prison because she became upset throughout the operation and threw herself up to the window of the death chamber with her arms wide.
After her husband was put to death, Tiana, who is originally from Kosovo, said on her TikTok: “They killed my husband.”
My husband’s injuries from the fatal injection were so severe that he had bruises on his neck and a nose bleed. As they watched, the families chuckled. Is that fair?
In a ceremony held at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Texas, Broadnax wed Tiana, a law school graduate and mother of one, only days before he was put to death.
As part of her Master’s degree in International Human Rights at the University of Law, she started investigating racial inequities throughout the US legal system, which led to their meeting in 2024.
The two immediately developed a romantic relationship via email after contacting Broadnax for her research. They then spoke “six to seven hours a day,” which strengthened their bond.
Following a fatal injection in front of his British wife Tiana Krasniqi (shown, left), James Broadnax (pictured, right) was declared dead on Thursday night.
For the 2008 shooting killings of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio, Broadnax was put to death.
A weeping Tiana said, “Let me make myself very, very clear,” in a TikTok post made the day before his execution. I’m not going to end here. The time is eight o’clock. This may be the final night I talk to him because they just locked his phone.
Hello, I’m The Crime Desk’s editor, Alex Matthews.
Fred and Rose West’s “house of horrors” was discovered more than 30 years ago, but have you ever wondered what became of their kids? While some people lead happy lives, others live in constant fear. Get our exclusive piece for free by registering here.
“Take me,” she repeated. Don’t take him.
Last year, Tiana made her first trip to Texas to meet him in person.
Before getting married, they dated for ninety days.
She acknowledged that their wedding ceremony was “not the most romantic” in an interview with ITV’s This Morning earlier this month.
“It’s behind glass… Texas has a very strict rule about no contact with death row inmates,” Tiana stated. “It’s a very quick 20-minute ceremony, you have an officiant, you say your vows and that’s it and it’s time to go.”
“Nobody is happy, it’s not your typical, conventional relationship, there’s been no support,” she continued, adding that she had “no support” from her loved ones.
“It’s okay, I totally understand, and I won’t harbour any resentment, but at the same time, people have served time in prison and emerged as better individuals. If, God willing, he were to be released, I can envision the same thing happening and he could alter his life as he intends to.”
“It’s okay, even though no one will understand.”
As part of her Master’s degree in International Human Rights, she started investigating racial discrepancies in the US legal system, which led to their meeting in 2024.
She acknowledged that the wedding ceremony was “not the most romantic” in an interview with ITV’s This Morning earlier this month.
Broadnax encouraged his supporters to continue fighting as the deadly dosage of the sedative pentobarbital started. “Don’t give up,” he urged, but a gasp interrupted him in the middle of another phrase. For a moment, every movement ceased as he shook his head. Twenty-one minutes later, at 6:47 p.m. CDT, he was declared dead.
Tiana battled to have her husband’s death sentence reversed in the weeks leading up to his execution.
She asserted that during the investigation and prosecution of the case, police and prosecutors did not adhere to the correct protocol.
“He was under the influence of PCP (Phencyclidine) when he was interviewed, and he had made it clear to the police that he was high,” she stated. The interview took place just four hours after the arrest.
“They did put five interviewers in front of him, and he acted in a way that indicated he was intoxicated and accepted responsibility for something he didn’t do.”Until the very last minute, all African American jurors were barred from the case; only one was admitted, and during that time, the jurors were questioned, which wasn’t the most racially neutral.
In order to support the death penalty during the trial, the prosecution showed the jury a number of rap songs that made references to drug use, robbery, and murder.
In a previous appeal, Broadnax’s lawyers claimed that the prosecution had violated his constitutional rights by portraying him as violent and dangerous in some of his rap lyrics in order to obtain a death sentence.
Tiana battled to have her husband’s death sentence reversed in the weeks leading up to his execution.
Last year, Tiana made her first trip to Texas to meet him in person.
Tiana said, “He also had about forty pages of rap lyrics, and when it came to the guilty verdict, the jurors had asked to see the rap lyrics twice before they made a decision to see if he was of future dangerousness.”
They attempted to paint him as a psychopath, but no one ever conducted a direct assessment of him.
Travis Scott, T.I., and Killer Mike were among the A-list rappers who had sent briefs to the Supreme Court endorsing Broadnax’s appeal.
Before his execution, Tiana came to the conclusion that Broadnax might still be executed: “It’s been a process, it’s been a lot of conversations, a lot of prayer, you still have hope because the evidence is so overwhelming that he didn’t commit the crime.” “You’d hope that people do stand up and fight for somebody that didn’t do the crime.”
Broadnax admitted to the shooting, according to prosecutors, telling reporters in jailhouse interviews that “I pulled the trigger” and that he had no regrets.
Cummings’ recent confession to being the shooter and Broadnax’s constitutional rights being violated by prosecutors’ racial exclusion of prospective jurors during his trial were the two main points of contention for his attorneys’ final appeals.
“I’m going to tell it like it should be told—that I was the murderer.” In a video produced as part of the campaign to halt Broadnax’s execution, Cummings recently stated from prison, “I shot Matthew… [and] Steve Swan.”
Additionally, in court documents submitted to the high court, Broadnax’s lawyers stated that Cummings’ confession is “corroborated by the fact that his DNA, and not Mr. Broadnax’s, was found on the murder weapon and in the pocket of one of the victims.”
Additionally, according to court filings, his lawyers claimed that prosecutors “utilised a spreadsheet during jury selection that [highlighted] only the names of every Black juror,” dismissing all seven prospective Black jurors based only on their colour. Later on, one Black juror was allowed to return to the jury. Black was Broadnax.
The US Supreme Court ruled in Batson v. Kentucky (1986) that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment was violated when jurors were excluded due to their race.
Matthew Butler’s mother, Theresa Butler, had requested that the execution go on. “This so-called confession from Cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax’s desperate defence team.” Butler posted on social media, saying, “It’s all a lie.”
Broadnax was the tenth person executed nationwide and the third in Texas this year. In the past, Texas has carried out more executions than any other state.
The US Supreme Court rejected Broadnax’s lawyers’ bid to halt his execution earlier on Thursday.
