1.   But they asserted that their client would remain free to pursue an appeal during the three months that the clemency application would take to be processed.

2.   Clemency applications have piled up during the Clinton administration.

3.   Clemency applications can be derailed before they reach Tallahassee.

4.   Earlier in the week, the state Board of Pardons and Parole had rejected his clemency application.

5.   His own clemency application acknowledged his guilt and asked Clinton to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

6.   In the months that followed, clemency applications from people convicted of drug crimes and other felons poured into the Justice Department at a rapidly increasing rate.

7.   State law requires prison administrators to help inmates complete clemency applications and get the documents into the hands of clemency officials.

8.   Using that rate as a barometer, Clinton has been less prone to granting clemency applications than his predecessors going back to Gerald Ford.

9.   Without such entree, it was nearly impossible to argue the merits of clemency applications, many lawyers said.