Tiana Krasniqi traveled to Texas to meet James Broadnax face-to-face last year, and they were married on April 14 in a 20-minute prison ceremony
A bride screamed “I love you” through a viewing window as she watched her new husband die by lethal injection – just weeks after they tied the knot behind bars.
Tiana Krasniqi, 31, a London law graduate, sobbed and threw herself against the glass as 37-year-old James Broadnax was executed in Texas last night. Broadnax was pronounced dead at 6:47 pm after a final dose of pentobarbital, despite a last-minute confession from his cousin claiming to be the real shooter.
Strapped to a gurney, Broadnax used his final words to maintain his innocence in the double murder of two music producers 18 years ago. He said: “I prayed to God for your forgiveness. Despite what you think about me, I hope to God that prayer was answered. But no matter what you think about me, Texas got it wrong. I’m innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself. Period.
“Let this moment be what finally sparks the revolution that will be televised, none of it was worth it. Queen Emmit, I love you, my promise still stands, it always will. Keep fighting, stay strong, keep God first, never stop believing. I love you forever and a day. I love you Queen. Peace, love, and light, that’s what I stand for. God bless everybody.”
READ MORE: Brit death row wife cries ‘I love you’ as killer rapper given lethal injection
Krasniqi, from Lewisham, who has a nine-year-old child from a previous relationship, later shared a harrowing account of the execution.
On Instagram, she wrote: “They killed my husband. My husband suffered so badly from the lethal injection that he had a nosebleed and bruising on his neck. The families laughed as they watched. Is that justice?’ “
Right up until the end, the 31-year-old had protested her husband’s innocence. Ahead of his execution, she remained so convinced that she moved to Houston, meaning months away from her daughter, who is living in the UK with her dad.
Born in Kosovo, she moved to London aged four, but was put in foster care aged 15, after her sister died. She says she is estranged from her dad, and has struggled with trauma after a close friend was killed in a stabbing.
“Nobody agrees with it. And I don’t expect them to. Like I said, it’s not conventional. ‘Hey, I met the love of my life in Texas. He’s on death row,’” Krasniqi told the Times.
“I miss my daughter. I haven’t seen her in a month. I’m probably not going to see her for another two. It is hard. But at the same time we are also protecting her. James and I had this agreement that, as much as we have this unconventional relationship, we don’t want to make it normal for her to think that it’s OK to just fall in a relationship with somebody in prison.”
Broadnax, along with his cousin, Demarius Cummings, was found guilty of fatally shooting and robbing Christian music producers, Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler, in a car park.
After finding out two months ago that his cousin was scheduled to die, Cummings confessed to being the shooter, in a sworn statement. Broadnax’s solicitors say his claim is corroborated by DNA found on the weapon. However, officials dismissed this as “questionable evidence” and denied requests for a reprieve, while the victims’ loved ones vehemently opposed any pause.
And so, as vigils were held across Texas, Krasniqi said her final goodbyes to the husband whose innocence she has never doubted. Seven relatives, including the parents of Swan and Butler, were present as the 37-year-old was administered a fatal dose of pentobarbital at 6.47 pm local time, as he was strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber.
The night before, Krasniqi tearfully told TikTok followers how authorities had “locked his phone”, adding that “this might be the last night I speak to him.” In a desperate final hour plea, she begged, “Take me. Don’t take him.”. She first met Broadnax in 2024, while she was working towards a master’s degree in international human rights law at the University of Law.
The then-student chose Broadnax as a case study, and what began as an assignment blossomed into a romance. Last year, Tiana, whose studies focused on racial disparities within the justice system, made the journey to Texas to meet Broadnax face-to-face. The couple tied the knot on April 14, in a short 15-minute ceremony behind bars, mere weeks before Broadnax’s execution date.
They got married after Krasniqi realised that she couldn’t take their relationship seriously if they didn’t.
She told the Times: “I had come to a point where I decided to take my faith in Christianity quite seriously. For me, it was always going to be a situation where if I was going to be in a relationship in general it would have been after marriage.”
As he couldn’t give her an engagement ring, he asked her to select one for her on his behalf.
Prosecutors have insisted Broadnax was behind the killings, pointing to his own apparent admission. Addressing reporters outside the prison, Broadnax previously stated: “I pulled the trigger”, claiming he had no remorse. In a later video, Broadnax said this confession, made at a time when he hadn’t cared about his own life, was false.
Broadnax’s legal team argued he had been under the influence of drugs at the time of the interviews, and previously alleged that prosecutors had violated their client’s constitutional rights by using rap lyrics he had written to portray him as a violent individual, so as to secure a death sentence.
In a separate statement, Broadnax expressed remorse over his part in the fatal robbery. “I wish I could show them my soul, so they could see just how sorry I am. I am very much remorseful for everything that happened.”
In a statement following the execution, Tiana described her husband as a “deeply intelligent person” who had transformed himself over two decades on Death Row. “James was never a psychopath or predator,” she added.
“He will be missed by all of us and by his family and many friends. James spoke often of his feelings for the families of Mr Swan and Mr Butler, and about his remorse for his role in these crimes, and our thoughts at this time are with their families as well, as James’s were.”
This marks the third execution this year in Texas alone, as per CNN, with the US state known for its comparatively high number of executions
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