Billy The Kid No Pardon

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico announced Friday it would not forgive Billy the Kid, prompting a sigh of relief from the descendants of the constable who killed the outlaw of the Old West and the frontier governor seemed to have the possibility pardon over a century ago.
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, seen in his office in August, will not pardon Billy the Kid.


  
Interviewed by ABC's "Good Morning America" on his last day in office, Mr. Richardson, said he decided to acquit the children against some of its past crimes, a subject that had fascinated him throughout his two terms as governor, because the historical record was too vague.
Historical records show that Lew Wallace, former territorial governor, held the possibility of an agreement if the boy testified before a grand jury about a murder he had witnessed. Billy the Kid did testify, but the proposed pardon never happened, something the illegal complained that he managed to escape the law, get caught and then escaped again, only to be shot in the dark a representative of the law of the frontier in 1881.
Some historians suggest that Mr. Wallace never explicitly offered a pardon to the outlaw, who went by the names of Henry and William H. McCarty Bonney, and may have been trying to trick you. Just before Wallace left office, told a newspaper: "I can not see how a man like him should expect no mercy from me."
Mr. Richardson's decision to consider a pardon Billy the Kid drew strong reactions in the state like New Mexico's history - even more so because people who say family ties of the central characters of the drama still live there.
While reflecting on forgiveness, Mr. Richardson discussed the issue with three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren of Sheriff Pat Garrett, the lawman who killed Billy the Kid. They opposed the proposal for amnesty of illegal and an affront to their ancestor, as well as great-grandson Wallace, William Wallace.
Mr. Richardson's office created a Web site to solicit opinions on the matter and received responses from around the world. In e-mails and letters, proponents of a pardon, not more than, 430 to 379.
But Mr. Richardson said he decided not to act "because of the lack of firepower and historical ambiguity that Governor Wallace reneged on his promise."