Prior to the recent rejection of clemency hearings, such requests were granted routinely. Until the 1990s only one request had been turned down. Secretary of State Scott Moore, a member of the current Pardons Board, believes clemency hearings should be granted as long as they are not used as a last-minute delaying device. The value of a pardons board is that it can take into consideration matters which lie outside the scope of the legal system. It isn't bound by arcane technicalities and confounding rules.
All states have a similar route of appeal that lies outside the legal system.
Few requests are granted, but occasionally one is. Moore, who favors the death penalty, said he does not know what it would take for him to vote to commute a death sentence. In this case the burden would be on Reeves to convince me otherwise. I do not say never. But that's why a hearing ought to take place.