Read a PDF of our statement here.

Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) sent Texas Governor Greg Abbott a letter pressing for the grant of reprieve of execution for James Broadnax, a Black man who faces execution by the state on Thursday, April 30.

On April 27^th, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Mr. Broadnax's petition for certiorari and on April 28^th, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole denied him clemency. Under Texas law, Governor Abbott cannot grant clemency because the Board of Pardons and Parole denied this petition for Mr. Broadnax, but he can intervene to grant a reprieve of execution for up to 30 days.

This letter urging reprieve is not LDF's first intervention on behalf of James Broadnax. LDF filed amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on March 9, 2026 and also on September 23, 2021. Both briefs highlight how racially discriminatory peremptory strikes barring prospective Black jurors from Mr. Broadnax's jury violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

LDF Director of Community Organizing Tré Murphy issued the following statement:

"There is no justice in the death penalty. It is an immoral act that has disproportionately impacted Black communities. James Broadnax is now facing a state-sanctioned killing in ways that draw from the racist history of this heinous practice. His trial bore the all too familiar and sinister mark of racial bias, from the striking of Black prospective jurors, to the eventual seating of a nearly all-white jury, and through the use of rap lyrics to connote dangerousness while feeding into stereotypes of Black criminality.

"The death penalty will never bring a victim of violence back. It will simply perpetuate more harm. Governor Abbott has the authority to grant James Broadnax a 30-day reprieve from state-sanctioned violence. We urge him to compassionately exercise this authority."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.