The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered two men removed from death row on Nov. 3, 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, for the slayings of a Port Arthur couple in their home.
Bell's attorneys challenged his death sentence, noting a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that bars execution of mentally retarded inmates.
Valdez, 49, was condemned for the 1987 slaying of a Corpus Christi police officer whom he shot four times with the officer's revolver.
Neither prisoner could be released without approval by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.