With 42 days until his scheduled execution, James Broadnax filed a new appeal in his capital murder conviction on Thursday with a signed confession from his codefendant claiming he, not Broadnax, had committed the killings.
In his confession, Demarius Cummings, Broadnax’s cousin, took full responsibility for the planned robbery and deadly shooting of music producers Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, in 2008. Cummings’ statement said he persuaded Broadnax, then 19, to publicly claim he committed the killings because he had no criminal history, while Cummings had already been convicted of other crimes.
