The day before her wedding, a 31-year-old woman discussed how she is marrying a man on death row about two weeks before he is set to be executed by lethal injection in Texas.
Tiana Krasniqi was scheduled to marry 37-year-old James Broadnax, who is incarcerated at the Huntsville Unit in Texas, on Tuesday, April 14, People reported.
Broadnax was sentenced to death after he was convicted of fatally shooting two men when he was 19 years old, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He is originally from Monterey County, California.
He is due to be executed on April 30, according to People.
Krasniqi, who has appealed Broadnax’s sentence, detailed how her wedding would be “very quick” while appearing on This Morning on Monday, April 13, before the ceremony.
“Texas has a very strict rule about no contact with death row inmates,” Krasniqi said. “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.”
Krasniqi said on This Morning that she formed a relationship with Broadnax while conducting graduate research related to “racial disparities in the criminal justice system,” KOMO-TV reported.
“I know a lot of people would say, you know, ‘You haven’t spent a day or a night with him,’ but you speak to somebody every day for six to seven hours a day, so you kind of go through the ups and downs,” Krasniqi shared.
“Believe it or not, he does have a moral compass,” Krasniqi said of Broadnax.
Broadnax’s co-defendant and cousin, Demarius Cummings, has recently publicly acknowledged that he was responsible for killing the two men in Garland, Texas, KERA News reported.
“When [his lawyer] told me on February 20 that James was scheduled to be executed on April 30, 2026, I decided it was time to come clean, and I told him that it was me, and not James, who had shot the two victims,” Cummings said in a confession obtained by the news outlet.
Despite the reported confession, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied an appeal filed by Broadnax’s attorneys that sought to prevent his execution, KDFW-TV reported.
Broadnax also has active petitions filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in connection with his incarceration that the court will decide on, according to the TV station.
Krasniqi moved from London to Houston before her wedding to Broadnax, she told the British newspaper The Times.
“Nobody agrees with it,” she said. “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 echoed a similar sentiment while speaking on British talk show This Morning, according to People.
“No one’s happy. It’s not your typical, conventional relationship,” she said. “There’s not any support, especially since being here. I haven’t heard from anyone, which is fine. I completely understand.”
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