Tiana Krasniqi was 31 years old when she watched her husband die in an execution chair in Texas.
It all began as a simple academic email. She was pursuing a master’s degree in human rights in London and wrote to 37-year-old James Broadnax, who had been sentenced to death for a double homicide that occurred 20 years earlier in Garland. She wanted to study racism in the judicial system, not fall in love. But the daily calls became more frequent, and four months later he asked her to be his girlfriend. Tiana traveled to Texas, left her 9-year-old daughter in England, and shared chicken sandwiches with James through a thick pane of glass during visits lasting no more than four hours.
While investigating the case file, she found something that shook her. James’s DNA never appeared on the weapon or the victims, but his cousin’s did. When they set the execution date, they got married with their hands separated by the glass, unable to kiss. Fifteen days later, Tiana watched him convulse on the gurney while he protested his innocence. The lethal injection took 40 minutes to kill him. She shouted “I love you” through the glass until the end.
