the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered 2 men removed from death row

the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered 2 men removed from death row, ruling they are mentally retarded and ineligible for execution. 
The court ordered the sentences for Walter Bell Jr., and Alberto Valdez reduced to life in prison.
Bell, 50, has been on death row for 29 years, more than any other Texas prisoner and one of the longest in the nation, for the slayings of Ferd and Irene Chisum.
In 1974, he was convicted of killing Irene Chisum and given the death penalty. On appeal, the sentence was commuted to life. In 1982, he was convicted of Ferd Chisum's slaying, but that conviction was overturned. In 1994, he was retried and condemned for Ferd Chisum's murder. His attorneys challenged that death sentence, noting the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars execution of mentally retarded inmates.
School records listed Bell as mentally retarded with an IQ in the mid-50s, well below the 70 IQ generally accepted as the threshold for retardation.
Valdez, 49, was condemned for the 1987 slaying of Corpus Christi police officer Joseph Bock.