{"id":3119,"date":"2026-05-01T14:41:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:41:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:41:04","slug":"texas-florida-carry-out-back-to-back-executions-on-same-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3119","title":{"rendered":"Texas, Florida carry out back-to-back executions on same day"},"content":{"rendered":"
Florida has executed a death row inmate 50 years after he raped and murdered\u00a0his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter\u00a0while Texas put an inmate to death for killing two Christian music producers during a robbery.<\/p>\n
The same-day executions by\u00a0lethal injection\u00a0came about an hour and a half apart on Thursday, April 30. First 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived with this for 50 years. I can breathe today,” one of Driggers’ cousins, Chip Driggers, told reporters after the execution. “Free at last, free at last. Our monster is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Also Thursday, Texas\u00a0executed James Broadnax\u00a0for the 2008 double murder of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler, two producers of Christian music killed during a robbery outside their studio in the Dallas suburb of Garland. Broadnax was pronounced dead at 7:47 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n
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“Texas got it 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 itself, period.”<\/p>\n
Hitchcock’s and Broadnax’s deaths bring to 10 the number of executions so far in the U.S. this year. Five more are scheduled next month in\u00a0Florida,\u00a0Tennessee,\u00a0Texas,\u00a0Oklahoma\u00a0and\u00a0Arizona.<\/p>\n
Here’s what you need to know about Thursday’s executions and the crimes the inmates committed.<\/p>\n\n
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The execution chamber at Florida State Prison in Starke.<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock<\/h2>\n
Florida executed James Ernest Hitchcock 50 years after he killed 13-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Driggers, his brother’s stepdaughter. On July 31, 1976, Hitchcock went into Cindy’s bedroom in the middle of the night, raped her, and then beat and choked her to death when she said she was going to tell her mom, court records say. Cindy would have turned 14 three days later.<\/p>\n
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Hitchcock initially confessed to the crime to police, though he later took it back and accused his brother of the killing.<\/p>\n
Hitchcock was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. At his sentencing hearing, Florida’s then-Ninth Circuit Judge Michael Cycmanick said that he had “great difficulty in expressing the horror, suffering and physical and emotional trauma the child victim must have experienced in this case.”<\/p>\n
Cindy’s family\u00a0told USA TODAY this week\u00a0that 50 years was far too long to wait for justice for the 13-year-old girl, described as a loving big sister who was always looking out for her four younger siblings and dreamed of one day becoming a flight attendant.<\/p>\n
Cindy’s mother, Helen Judy Hitchcock said that she and her other children were “lost” when Cindy was killed.<\/p>\n
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“They didn’t know what to do,” Hitchcock said through tears. “Me, I just kept setting a plate at the table for her. I did that for a long time.”<\/p>\n
Hitchcock said that she still struggles every Aug. 3, when her daughter should be celebrating her birthday. Cindy would have turned 64 this year.<\/p>\n
“I just miss her,” she said. “I would love to have seen what she is like grown up, to find out, did she really become a stewardess? Would she have been tall (like some of her siblings) or shorter like me? Just everyday things. I’d just love to see her.”<\/p>\n\n