Clarence Jordan has been a death row inmate for 47 years, yet his execution was never carried out. Jordan, now 68, was convicted of the 1977 murder and robbery of Houston grocery store worker, Joe Williams.
The Crime
On Oct. 14, 1977, Jordan walked into the Rice Food Store asking for an employment application. “After speaking briefly with the manager, (Jordan) pulled a pistol and demanded the store’s money, as well as the manager’s car keys,” court documents read.
During the robbery, Williams walked into the manager’s office and Jordan demanded his keys. Police said when Williams said he “didn’t drive,” Jordan shot him one time in the chest.
Jordan then grabbed a bag of money, ordered everyone to the back of the store, then ran to the parking lot and forced a person at gunpoint to give him a ride. Harris County court records show Jordan had a prior criminal history of aggravated robbery.
The Timeline
Jordan was first convicted of capital murder in 1978, but in 1982 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction and death sentence. At the time, the CCA cited improper testimony given during the punishment phase and that Jordan was not allowed to strike a juror who had a bias regarding sentencing in murder cases.
Jordan was again convicted and sentenced to death in 1983. In 1987, it was determined Jordan was incompetent. By this time the US Supreme Court had ruled an incompetent person could not be executed even if they were competent at the time the crime was committed and at the time of trial.
The following year the CCA agreed Jordan could not be executed until his competency was restored. After this ruling, it appears the case stagnated.
What happened over the last 37 years?
“Should somebody have, at some point, tried to restore his competency?” asked KPRC 2 Investigates Robert Arnold.
“I think what someone should have done was paid attention to his case at some point over the last 30 years,” said Ben Wolff, director of the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs. “One of the heartbreaking injustices in this case is that Mr. Jordan was not just forgotten here, he’s a person who’s intellectually disabled and severely mentally ill who was forgotten.”
The OCFW is the post-conviction public defender for capital and forensic science cases. In Nov. 2024, Wolff filed a motion to be appointed Jordan’s attorney. Wolff said it does not appear Jordan had an attorney after he was declared incompetent in 1988.
While it is unclear whether any attempts were made to restore Jordan’s competency, Wolff argues that would have been a “fool’s errand” because he is severely mentally ill.
Old Houston Chronicle and Houston Post newspaper articles, and court documents, show Jordan referred to himself as ‘Father Nature,’ tried to stab a bailiff with a spoon after jury selection in his trial ended and escaped from the courthouse on the day he was ruled incompetent. Wolff said Jordan suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, has hallucinations, brain damage and below average IQ.
Clarence Jordan Letters
Over the years Jordan wrote largely nonsensical letters to the court. In 2000, there is a handwritten memo in Jordan’s file from Judge Jan Krocker, noting she received a letter from Jordan. Krocker’s memo reads Jordan was incompetent and “there appears no reason to appoint a lawyer at this time.”
Krocker’s 2000 memo also noted if the DA’s Office questioned whether Jordan was still incompetent prosecutors would need to file a motion challenging the diagnosis. No action appears to have been taken.
In 2004, Krocker sent an email to the DA’s office noting the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states the trial court “shall periodically order that the defendant be reexamined.” Krocker’s email further reads if prosecutors believe Jordan’s mental status has changed, then she will order new mental health evaluations, “Otherwise I will take no action.”
In 2017, the CCA sent a letter to the court, asking about the status of Jordan’s case. Krocker responded that he was found incompetent to be executed and “no action has been taken by the court since that time.”
2017 Court of Criminal Appeals Letter
Krocker appears to have retired from the bench in 2018, but the State Bar of Texas website still lists her as eligible to serve as a visiting judge.
“It appears that a decision was made by his attorneys that once it was determined he could not be executed; ‘we’re just going to let him be,‘ said Josh Reiss, general counsel for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Reiss was not involved in Jordan’s case, but said it does not appear the court set-up any type of monitoring function for Jordan’s case after he was declared incompetent.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that Clarence Jordan committed capital murder. I have no doubt that Clarence Jordan committed the 6, 7 or 8 extraneous aggravated robberies, there is no doubt that Clarence Jordan was an extremely violent, dangerous person at the time of his trial,” said Reiss. ”The issue is, should he be on death row?"
Jordan’s case was among 100 post conviction writ cases that fell through the cracks of the system. These cases were discovered in 2022 by associate judges tasked with helping clear a backlog of criminal cases in Harris County.
Harris County District Clerk Office Statement to KPRC
Reiss said he contacted Wolff after learning of Jordan’s case. Wolff said at the time he was contacted by Reiss he was already investigating what happened in the case.
Next steps
Wolff plans to file an appeal this month, arguing Jordan’s mental illness should have precluded him from getting the death penalty in the first place. Wolff said while the second jury was told of Jordan’s brain damage and mental illness, the state argued he was competent. Instructions to the jury did not allow for jurors to consider whether Jordan’s mental illness was a mitigating factor in the crime when deciding punishment.
“He doesn’t belong on death row,” said Wolff. “I think this is horrifying and I think that everyone is poorly served in Texas, the victims of crime, the state of Texas, certainly people who are incarcerated when when cases like this come about and when people are forgotten."
After Wolff files his appeal, Reiss said the DA’s Office will then decide how to proceed.
“The way the law is set up is that the District Attorney’s Office can’t just swoop in five, ten, 20, 40 years later and say, ‘okay, we’re changing the jury’s sentence,‘” said Reiss. “We will review it very carefully and if we think that a due process violation has occurred, we’re going to call it and we will make that recommendation to the Court of Criminal Appeals."
While Jordan remains classified as a death row inmate, he was moved from TDCJ’s Polunsky unit to the Estelle Prison unit in 2015. The Estelle Unit is equipped to handle inmates with chronic medical needs. Court records show Jordan suffered a stroke and can no longer speak. Citing privacy laws, TDCJ officials could not comment on what mental health treatment Jordan may have received during his incarceration.
