The pope asked for "a significant gesture of clemency".
At the end of 2015, after significant public pressure, Cuomo, for the first time, released through clemency a senior citizen from prison.
After the death sentence was passed, there was a widespread outcry for clemency, and for decades after the executions, there was significant debate about their guilt.
The Simi Valley Police Department and the Ventura County district attorney supported the clemency claim after their own follow-up probe found "significant exculpatory evidence," including new DNA testing of Wicht's bedsheets that identified DNA from another man, according to a report by legislative analysts.
A close look at some of the clemency applications of the nearly 200 others who were pardoned reveals that a significant share contained appeals from members of prominent Mississippi families, major Republican donors or others from the higher social strata of Mississippi life.
These matters include significant litigation, the defense of congressional investigations, the judicial selection and nomination process, government ethics, and clemency.
Offenders seeking clemency will have to have served at least 10 years of their sentence, have no significant criminal history, and no connection to gangs, cartels or organized crime.
The criteria for figuring out whether to recommend clemency requests to Obama: Inmates had to have served at least 10 years, have no significant criminal history and have no connection to gangs, cartels or organized crime.
"Recognizing that clemency decisions are a matter of presidential prerogative, the facts of several of these cases raise significant law enforcement concerns," she said through a spokesman.
Will there be credit clemency?
