Albanian woman watched her husband’s execution in Texas, Sky News: She shouted “I love you”, she was offered help
News
Express newspaper
01/05/2026 20:48
Tiana Krasniqi, the wife of a death row inmate, screamed “I love you” before her husband was executed for a fatal shooting he claimed he did not commit. James Broadnax, 37, was pronounced dead Thursday after a lethal injection in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston, Texas.
Broadnax had claimed that prosecutors had misused the lyrics of rap songs he had written to secure the death penalty, reports SkyNewsreports Gazeta Express.
His wife, named in various reports as Tiana Krasniqi, screamed “I love you” before Broadnax stopped breathing.
During the execution, she leaned towards the window of the execution chamber with her arms outstretched and had to be helped out of the prison.
Earlier in the day, the US Supreme Court rejected a request by Broadnax’s lawyers to stay the execution.
Broadnax was convicted of the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a music studio in Dallas.
Prosecutors said he and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In his final statement, Broadnax protested his innocence but apologized to the victims’ families, some of whom, including the parents of both victims, were present.
He said: “I have prayed to God for your forgiveness. Regardless of what you think of me, I hope to God that prayer has been heard.”
But regardless of what you think of me, Texas is wrong. I am innocent. The facts of my case should speak for themselves. Period.”
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began to be injected, Broadnax urged his supporters to continue the fight, saying “don’t give up.” He was interrupted mid-sentence by a deep breath.
He also shook his head briefly and all movement stopped, before being pronounced dead 21 minutes later.
Prosecutors said he had confessed to the murder and during interviews in prison had told reporters “I pulled the trigger” and that he felt no remorse.
In his latest appeals, Broadnax’s lawyers focused on two issues: that Cummings had recently admitted to being the shooter and that his constitutional rights had been violated because prosecutors had excluded potential jurors from the trial on the basis of race.
In a video recently recorded with the aim of stopping the execution, Cummings said from prison: “I’m going to tell it like it should be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard and Steve Swan.”
In an earlier appeal, Broadnax’s lawyers had also argued that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights by using rap lyrics he had written to portray him as violent and dangerous, to secure the death penalty.
Rappers like Travis Scott and Killer Mike had filed documents with the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.
Theresa Butler, the mother of Matthew Butler, had requested that the execution continue.
She wrote in a social media post: “This so-called confession by Cummings is just a delaying tactic by the desperate Broadnax defense team. It’s all a lie.”
Broadnax was the tenth person executed in the US this year and the third in Texas, which historically has the highest number of executions compared to any other state.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 24 executions were carried out in 2023 and 25 the following year.
Last year, this figure increased to 47.
