Texas’ Highest Criminal Court Overturns Sentence of Inmate Who Has Been on Death Row for 48 Years

Texas’ highest criminal court overturns sentence of inmate who has been on death row for 47 years

By Alex Nguyen, The Texas Tribune April 9, 2026 Texas’ highest criminal court has overturned the death sentence of a Harris County man who was on death row for nearly half a century. Clarence Curtis Jordan, 70, was first convicted in 1978 of murdering Joe L. Williams, a 40-year-old Houston grocer. Jordan, who is intellectually disabled, was then found in subsequent years to be incompetent and therefore could not be executed. But for almost four …

Texas court tosses man’s sentence after 47 years on death row

Clarence Curtis Jordan’s attorney said the intellectually disabled man didn’t have a lawyer to work on his behalf for nearly four decades.

Texas’ highest criminal court overturns sentence of inmate who has been on death row for 48 years

Clarence Curtis Jordan’s attorney said the intellectually disabled man didn’t have a lawyer to work on his behalf for nearly four decades.