Tiana Krasniqi chose to marry James Broadnax despite his murder conviction and death sentence. Now, she is holding on to the memory of his final words before his execution.
Although his cousin took full responsibility for the 2008 murders of two men, Broadnax, who was just 19 at the time, was executed on April 30, 2026, at the age of 37. Despite their efforts to overturn their convictions, their appeals were unsuccessful.
Broadnax married Krasniqi, 31, just weeks before his execution. The two first crossed paths while she was researching racial disparities as part of her studies in international human rights law.
In an interview with This Morning on April 13, she described the ceremony: “It’s pretty much the same behind glass again,” she said, according to Tyla. “Texas has a very strict rule about no contact with death row inmates. So, yeah, 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.”
James Broadnax was executed in April 2026
She went on: “He’s very intelligent, very well spoken, very respectful. He’s just your normal person … I know a lot of people would say, ‘You haven’t spent a day or a night with him,’ but you speak to somebody every single day for 6-7 hours a day, so you kind of go through the ups and downs.
“It’s just his personality and who he is as a person. Believe it or not, he does have a moral compass.”
Krasniqi was determined to stand by Broadnax until the very end. In an interview with LADbible, she shared what the couple said to each other during their final meeting.: “I got him his favorite Powerade and beef jerky because he couldn’t eat. So I said ‘just eat something’ and he was just crying. And I’ll never forget. He leaned back and he said, ‘I never knew how loved I could be. I never knew I was worthy of being fought for.’
“How do you console somebody who is at the last hours of his life?”
In his last moments, he made sure to tell her how much he loved her: “He was like, ‘I love you queen, don’t give up, I love you queen, don’t give up.’ As he said ‘don’t’, his head jerked back and he went [gasping noise] and then his eyes rolled up and he dropped. And I screamed.”
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