The Texas court of criminal appeals has overturned the death sentence of Clarence Curtis Jordan, a 70-year-old man with intellectual disabilities, who spent nearly 50 years on death row – much of that time without a lawyer.

Jordan was convicted in 1978 for the murder of Joe L Williams, a 40-year-old grocer in Houston, and was sentenced to death. In the years that followed, courts determined that Jordan, who has intellectual disabilities, was “incompetent”, making him ineligible for execution under constitutional standards.

In 2024, attorney Ben Wolff, director of the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs in Austin, took up Jordan’s case. In 2025, he filed a petition to the court requesting Jordan’s death sentence be overturned, arguing that the case was “a troubling, yet remediable failure of Texas criminal justice”, according to the Houston Press.

“Mr Jordan is an incompetent, brain-damaged person with an IQ that has been assessed at scores of 56 and 60. Mr Jordan has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, mental retardation and organic brain dysfunction – and was known during his trial as Father Nature. He has largely been unable to advocate or care for himself,” the filing continued.

“To date, Mr Jordan has been on death row for nearly 50 years. Yet, he has not had a lawyer for over 30 years, and has spent that time utterly forgotten and wasting away in a Texas prison. In the interim, eighth amendment jurisprudence has made clear that Mr Jordan’s death sentence is unconstitutional.”

On Thursday the Texas court of criminal appeals vacated Jordan’s death sentence and sent the case back to Harris county “for a new punishment proceeding”.

Wolff welcomed the ruling, telling the Texas Tribune on Thursday that he was grateful for the outcome. But he said that the case highlighted “a troubling truth” within the criminal justice system that people most in need of help are often “forgotten or cast aside”.

The Tribune reported that the Harris county district attorney’s office said on Thursday that the ruling was “what justice looks like”, while adding that his conviction stands.

“This outcome does not lessen the harm caused to Joe Williams’ family and friends,” the office’s statement said. “When a life is at stake, we must follow the law and ensure the process is fair.”

Wolff told the Tribune that the only other eligible punishment for his conviction would be life in prison with the possibility for parole.