Billy the Kid, the famous Wild West outlaw, may receive a pardon from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson by Friday, according to several media reports.
The Kid, who was known as William H. Bonny, was a convicted murderer and robber but has since acquired a legacy as a popular figure in the Wild West lore.
Richardson, who will be leaving office Friday, may make a posthumous pardon 130 years after The Kid’s death, because he gave a testimony against three men who shot and killed a lawyer in 1879, according to the Wall Street Journal.
At the time, then-New Mexico governor Lew Wallace is believed to have promised to pardon The Kid, who was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881.
“I believe that requests of this nature must be fully vetted and investigated by the appropriate agencies to ensure that I do the right thing for those who request clemency as well as the citizens of New Mexico,” Richardson told AFP.
The Journal reported that Richardson asked New Mexico residents to weigh in their opinion on whether the outlaw should be pardoned. Of the 800 emails received to date, a slight majority thought that he should.
However, the pardon is not all wine and roses. Descendants of Sheriff Garrett said that to pardon The Kid would be to honor a murderer, AFP reported. It would also paint their grandfather in a bad light.
“We consider that an abomination as well as an inexcusable defamation of a great man,” Jarvis Patrick and Susan Floyd Garrett told AFP.
Incoming New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez said that she will not be dedicating any efforts toward the pardon.
“There’s an awful lot of work to be taken care of for us to be wasting so much time on such a consideration,” she told CBS. “It’s just a waste.”
The Kid, who was known as William H. Bonny, was a convicted murderer and robber but has since acquired a legacy as a popular figure in the Wild West lore.
Richardson, who will be leaving office Friday, may make a posthumous pardon 130 years after The Kid’s death, because he gave a testimony against three men who shot and killed a lawyer in 1879, according to the Wall Street Journal.
At the time, then-New Mexico governor Lew Wallace is believed to have promised to pardon The Kid, who was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881.
“I believe that requests of this nature must be fully vetted and investigated by the appropriate agencies to ensure that I do the right thing for those who request clemency as well as the citizens of New Mexico,” Richardson told AFP.
The Journal reported that Richardson asked New Mexico residents to weigh in their opinion on whether the outlaw should be pardoned. Of the 800 emails received to date, a slight majority thought that he should.
However, the pardon is not all wine and roses. Descendants of Sheriff Garrett said that to pardon The Kid would be to honor a murderer, AFP reported. It would also paint their grandfather in a bad light.
“We consider that an abomination as well as an inexcusable defamation of a great man,” Jarvis Patrick and Susan Floyd Garrett told AFP.
Incoming New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez said that she will not be dedicating any efforts toward the pardon.
“There’s an awful lot of work to be taken care of for us to be wasting so much time on such a consideration,” she told CBS. “It’s just a waste.”
