A North Texas man who claimed he wasn’t the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who says prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence has been executed.

The wife of a double murderer screamed “I love you” as he was put to death at a prison in Texas on Thursday. James Broadnax maintained his innocence in a fatal 2008 robbery that killed two people up until his final breath.

For years, county, state and federal courts have ruled that neither Broadnax’s transformation, nor his claims of an unfair trial, were grounds for reprieve.

The British wife of a man on death row for murder said three final words before his execution. James Broadnax, 37. Received a lethal injection and died on Thursday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, some 70 miles north of Houston.

James Broadnax, 37, was executed by lethal injection at 6.47pm local time at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.