Three US states have executed 10 inmates so far this year, and five more are scheduled to be executed next month.
Tennessee to execute woman for first time in 200 years
If Christa Pike is executed, she will be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years and the 19th woman in modern U.S. history.
Florida has executed the death row inmate who raped and murdered his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter for the first time in 50 years, and Texas has put to death an inmate who murdered two Christian music producers during a robbery.
The same-day executions by lethal injection took place about an hour and a half apart on Thursday, April 30th. First, the state of Florida executed James Ernest Hitchcock for the 1976 murder of 13-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Driggers. Hitchcock was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.
“I’ve lived with this for 50 years. Today I can breathe,” one of Driggers’ cousins, Chip Driggers, told reporters after the execution. “We’re finally free, we’re finally free. Our monster is dead.”
Also Thursday, Texas executed James Broadnax for the double murders of Christian music producers Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler, who were murdered in a 2008 robbery outside a studio in the Dallas suburb of Garland. Broadnax was pronounced dead at 7:47 p.m. ET.
“The state of Texas was wrong,” Broadnax said as he lay on the execution gurney, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “I’m innocent. The facts of my case should speak for themselves.”
Hitchcock and Broadnax’s deaths bring the number of executions in the United States to 10 so far this year. Five more are scheduled for next month in Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona.
Here’s what you need to know about Thursday’s execution and the crimes committed by the inmates.
Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock
The state of Florida executed James Ernest Hitchcock 50 years after he murdered his brother’s stepdaughter, 13-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Driggers. According to court records, on July 31, 1976, Hitchcock entered Cindy’s bedroom in the middle of the night, raped her, then beat and choked her to death after she said she would tell her mother. Cindy would have turned 14 in three days.
Hitchcock initially confessed to the crime to police, but later recanted and charged his brother with the murder.
Hitchcock was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. At the time, Judge Michael Cycmanic of Florida’s Ninth Circuit said at the sentencing hearing that he had “great difficulty expressing the fear, pain, and physical and emotional trauma that the child victims must have experienced in this case.”
Cindy’s family told USA TODAY this week that 50 years was too long to wait for justice for a 13-year-old girl. Cindy was a loving older sister who always looked after her four younger brothers and dreamed of one day becoming a flight attendant.
Cindy’s mother, Helen Judy Hitchcock, said she and her other children were “disappeared” when Cindy was killed.
“They didn’t know what to do,” Hitchcock said through tears. “I just kept putting plates on the table for her. I did that for a long time.”
Hitchcock said she still struggles on Aug. 3 every year, when her daughter is supposed to celebrate her birthday. Cindy would have turned 64 this year.
“I miss her so much,” she said. “I want to see what she grew up to be like. I want to know if she really became a stewardess. Was she tall (like her brothers) or short like me? Just everyday things. I want to meet her.”
Texas executes James Broadnax
Texas executed James Broadnax for the 2008 double murder of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler after losing a bitter fight for a suspended sentence.
Mr. Broadnax’s case attracted national attention when his lawyers argued that it was an unfair trial in which prosecutors excluded nearly all potential black jurors and used Mr. Broadnax’s own rap lyrics against him. As a result, defense attorneys argued in a recent filing to the U.S. Supreme Court that Broadnax’s “artistic expression” turned into a death warrant.
Big-name rappers such as Travis Scott, T.I., Killer Mike, and Young Thug supported Broadnax, arguing to the Supreme Court that rap music is increasingly being used as evidence against defendants “in ways that exploit and perpetuate stereotypes.”
Prosecutors in Texas defended the practice, saying the lyrics Broadnax wrote in prison after the murder showed jurors an “extreme lack of compassion, remorse, remorse and accountability.” They also insisted it was not a racial issue.
“If Johnny Cash had been tried for murder, there is no doubt that his ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ lyrics (‘I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die’) would have been admissible during the penalty phase of the trial, especially if the murder allegedly occurred in Reno,” they argued.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court rejected Broadnax’s appeal based on his rap lyrics, as well as two other appeals based on the jury selection process and a recent murder confession by his cousin.
When is the next execution?
The next execution in the United States is scheduled for May 14, when two states plan to execute inmates.
Oklahoma plans to execute Raymond Eugene Johnson, who killed his ex-girlfriend and her baby in Tulsa in 2007. On the same day, Texas is scheduled to execute Edward Lee Buzbee for the 2004 robbery and murder of a retired Texas Christian University professor.
Eight inmates have been executed in three US states so far this year. Thirteen more are scheduled so far through 2026, but that number is sure to rise since the governor can sign the death warrant at any time.
One of the most notable upcoming executions is that of Krista Pike in Tennessee, who was tortured to death in 1995. If Pike’s execution goes ahead as scheduled in September, she will be the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter covering capital punishment, cold case investigations and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
