Bio

Clarence Curtis Jordan was born on April 9, 1956. Jordan’s criminal case later included evidence of several robberies. During the punishment phase of his capital murder trial, witnesses testified about armed robberies linked to him at grocery stores in 1977 and early 1978. Court records also show that mental health and neurological issues later became central to his appeals and resentencing. At his 1983 retrial, the defense presented evidence that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and possible organic brain damage.

Jordan spent decades under a death sentence in Texas. In later years, courts found him incompetent for execution, and he remained on death row for nearly half a century. In 2026, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his death sentence after finding that the jury at his 1983 trial had not received proper instructions allowing it to give full effect to mitigating evidence about his mental and neurological conditions.

Murder Story

On October 14, 1977, Clarence Curtis Jordan entered the Rice Food Market at 8610 South Park in Houston, Texas. According to court records, he first approached store manager George Harden and asked for a job application. After entering Harden’s office, Jordan pulled a pistol from his shirt and pointed it at Harden.

Jordan demanded Harden’s car keys, but Harden told him the car was in the shop. Jordan then ordered Harden to go to the front of the store and get money. During the robbery, store employee Joe L. Williams entered the office. Jordan pushed Williams toward Harden and gave him repeated commands to sit down and stand up. When Jordan demanded Williams’s keys and Williams said he did not own a car, Jordan shot him in the chest.

After shooting Williams, Jordan continued the robbery. He forced Harden and another employee toward the front of the store, where money was kept in the courtesy booth. As bundles of cash were handed over, Jordan ordered Harden to place the money into a sack. Witnesses later identified Jordan as the robber.

Jordan then fled the store. Nearby, he entered a car occupied by Ike Warner and Laura Frank, pointed a gun, and forced Warner to drive away. After several minutes, Jordan ordered Warner to stop, left the vehicle, and told Warner to leave and not look back.

Chief Medical Examiner Joseph Jachimczyk testified that Joe L. Williams, 40, died from a .38-caliber gunshot wound to the chest. Jordan offered no evidence during the guilt stage of the trial.

Jordan was convicted of capital murder in 1978 and sentenced to death. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later reversed the conviction and sentence because of an error involving jury selection. The case was sent back for a new trial.

In 1983, Jordan was retried. A new jury again convicted him of capital murder and assessed the death penalty. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in 1986.

Jordan’s execution was scheduled for August 1987, but he filed a habeas application arguing that he was incompetent to be executed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found him incompetent under Ford v. Wainwright and stayed his execution until he could regain competency.

For decades, Jordan remained imprisoned under a death sentence. In 2024, he was appointed new counsel after years without active legal representation. In April 2026, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his death sentence, ruling that the 1983 jury instructions did not properly allow jurors to consider and give effect to mitigating evidence about his mental and neurological condition. His conviction remained in place, but the death sentence was no longer valid.

In June 2026, a Harris County judge resentenced Clarence Curtis Jordan to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The judge also recommended that he be evaluated for medically recommended intensive supervision because of his medical condition.