A Dallas County death row case has taken another sharp turn, but not one that stopped the execution date.
In her FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth report, Amelia Jones explained that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has denied the latest appeal from James Broadnax, even after his co-defendant and cousin, Damarius Cummings, signed a new declaration claiming that he – not Broadnax – was the shooter in the 2008 double murder outside a Garland music studio.
That is the kind of development most people would expect to slam on the brakes.
Instead, the case is still moving forward.
Broadnax is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 30, and while his lawyers still have a few legal and clemency paths left, Jones made clear that time is running short and the state’s highest criminal court has already refused to intervene on this newest claim.
That alone makes the case feel heavy. A man on death row has a co-defendant now saying he pulled the trigger, yet the machinery of execution is still very much on.
The Appeal Was Built Around A Late Confession
Amelia Jones reported that Broadnax’s latest filing asked the court to halt the execution in light of new evidence from Cummings.
According to her report, Cummings filed a signed declaration last month saying that he was the one who shot and killed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler outside their Garland Christian music recording studio in 2008. Jones said Broadnax’s attorneys used that declaration in a new appeal, arguing that this changed the picture in a major way.
The court did not agree.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the appeal, and in doing so focused heavily on one fact: Broadnax has not recanted his own earlier confessions.
That point sat at the center of the ruling.
Jones reported that the court’s opinion said Broadnax had not withdrawn those past admissions, including statements he made to friends and to the media. That history, in the court’s view, weakened the argument that the new confession from Cummings should now reopen the case in a way that would stop the execution.
That legal reasoning may make sense inside the narrow structure of appellate review, but it still leaves a troubling public question hanging in the air. When one convicted man on death row has another convicted man now claiming he was the actual shooter, a lot of people are naturally going to wonder how much uncertainty the system is willing to tolerate before it pauses.
The Old Confession Still Looms Over Everything
One reason the court seemed unwilling to budge is that Broadnax’s own words from years ago remain part of the record.
Amelia Jones included part of a 2008 FOX 4 jail interview conducted by Shaun Rabb, in which Broadnax described shooting the victims in graphic terms. In the clip, Broadnax said one victim stumbled back, and the other leaned up as if he might get back up, so he shot him in the head.
That statement is obviously devastating.
It is the kind of confession that prosecutors would never want to let go of, and it explains a lot about why the court viewed the new claim from Cummings with so much skepticism. Once a defendant has already described the killing in that way, a later attempt by someone else to take sole blame faces a steep climb.
At the same time, Jones also pointed out that Cummings himself spoke to Shaun Rabb back in 2008 and said he did not kill anyone.
That contradiction is part of what makes the case so hard to read cleanly.
Back then, Broadnax said he did it. Cummings said he did not. Now Cummings is saying the opposite, and Broadnax’s legal team is trying to use that reversal to stop an execution that is only weeks away.
The problem is that courts tend to distrust late-breaking confessions that collide head-on with earlier admissions already in the record. And in a death penalty case, that distrust can become decisive.
The Two Men Got Very Different Sentences
Amelia Jones also reminded viewers of one of the most striking facts in the case: Broadnax and Cummings were both convicted in the same 2008 double murder, but they did not receive the same sentence.
Cummings, who Jones said had a lengthy criminal history, was sentenced to life without parole.
Broadnax, who she noted did not have a violent criminal past, was sentenced to death.
That difference matters, and not only because it sounds surprising on its face.
It matters because the current fight is no longer just about whether Broadnax was present or involved. It is also about whether he should be the one facing execution if Cummings is now saying Broadnax did not actually pull the trigger.
That is where Cornell law professor Sheri Johnson enters the story.
Jones reported that Johnson has consulted for Broadnax’s legal team over the past two years. Johnson told FOX 4 that she believes the new evidence may not be as important to the raw question of guilt as it is to the question of punishment.
That is a subtle but powerful distinction.
Johnson’s argument, as Jones presented it, is not necessarily that the confession from Cummings magically erases Broadnax’s role. It is that if Broadnax was not the shooter, that fact could still matter enormously when deciding whether death, rather than life, is the proper punishment.
And that is hard to dismiss. In capital cases, who did what can matter as much in sentencing as it does in conviction.
Sheri Johnson Says The Court Missed The Bigger Picture
One of the more interesting parts of Amelia Jones’ report is how Johnson framed the confession issue.
Johnson said that if Broadnax had tried to recant on his own, it probably would not have helped much anyway. In her view, if he had simply said he was not the shooter, there is little reason to think anyone would have believed him standing alone.
That is a fascinating point because it highlights the trap at the center of this case.
The court seems to fault Broadnax for not recanting. But Johnson argues that if he had recanted, that likely would have been brushed aside as self-serving unless and until somebody else backed him up. Now that somebody else has backed him up — Cummings — the system is still largely leaning on the original confession.
In other words, the thing that might have made Broadnax more credible years ago may not have existed then, and now that it does exist, the state says it is too late or too weak to change anything.
That does not automatically mean the court is wrong, but it does make the case feel uneasy.
Johnson also said the order denying relief did not appear to grapple with the DNA issue on the gun in the way she believes it should have. Jones noted that Cummings’ declaration claims DNA found on the murder weapon points to him, not Broadnax.
That is not a small allegation.
Still, the court’s ruling, as Jones described it, said even if Broadnax lied in his confession, that would not amount to a due process violation. The opinion reportedly took the position that his own statements, if false, were his own doing and did not create a legal path around the barriers that usually limit repeated appeals.
That is a very legal answer to a very human question.
And sometimes those two things fit together poorly.
The Legal Options Are Narrowing Fast
Even though the Court of Criminal Appeals has now denied this latest appeal, Amelia Jones said Broadnax is not completely out of moves.
His attorneys have filed a petition for clemency with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. That is now one of the last major state-level options left.
But even there, success is not simple.
Jones noted that if the board recommends clemency, the final decision would still belong to Governor Greg Abbott. So even a favorable recommendation would not automatically save Broadnax from execution.
On top of that, Jones said Broadnax still has two matters pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
One deals with claims of racial discrimination in jury selection at his original trial. The other concerns the use of Broadnax’s own rap lyrics during the trial. According to Jones, the Supreme Court is expected to review those two pending issues on April 24, just days before the April 30 execution date.
Sheri Johnson told FOX 4 that if the justices were to grant review in a way that mattered procedurally, they would also issue a stay and the execution would not happen on schedule.
That means Broadnax’s case is now in a tense waiting period.
The execution date still stands. But the final answer may not come until the very last days.
Why This Case Feels So Unsettling
There are death penalty cases where the facts appear settled, even if the punishment remains controversial.
This is not one of those cases.
Amelia Jones’ report leaves viewers with a story full of contradictions: an old confession, a new confession, different sentences for two co-defendants, a court focused on procedure, and a legal team insisting that the late-breaking evidence still matters deeply.
That does not prove Broadnax is innocent.
It does, however, make the case feel less clean than the state’s current timetable suggests.
And that is what gives this story its weight. Once an execution happens, there is no correcting the record later in any meaningful way. That is why cases like this draw so much scrutiny whenever new evidence emerges, even if the evidence is messy, late, or incomplete.
The justice system values finality. But finality feels different when a man’s cousin and co-defendant now says, in writing, that he was the shooter.
The Execution Date Still Stands – For Now
As of Amelia Jones’ report, the central fact remains unchanged: James Broadnax is still scheduled to be executed on April 30.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected this latest effort to stop it. The confession from Damarius Cummings did not persuade the court to halt the process. Broadnax’s earlier confessions remain a major obstacle. And the next decisions may come only days before the execution itself.
That leaves the case in a narrow corridor between legal finality and lingering doubt.
There are still steps left. The clemency petition is pending. The U.S. Supreme Court still has two matters to review. But the state has not backed away, and the calendar has not slowed down.
Jones’ reporting makes that much unmistakably clear.
A new confession has raised serious questions for Broadnax’s supporters and legal team. It has not, at least yet, stopped the state of Texas from moving toward execution anyway.
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