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Deadline looms for Billy the Kid pardon
AFP - Friday, December 31
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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will announce Friday whether he issues a posthumous pardon for Billy Kid, the most infamous of the Wild West outlaws shot dead by a lawman 129 years ago.
Richardson's office said the announcement will be made during a live broadcast of ABC's "Good Morning America" show at about 5:10 am local time (1210 GMT), only hours before Richardson leaves office at the end of the year.
"I haven't decided yet," Richardson told CNN late Thursday.
"It's going to be a very close call. It's not going to be a blanket pardon because Billy did kill some law enforcement officers when he was escaping the Lincoln County jail."
Richardson said he has been investigating Billy the Kid since he first took office, especially reports that territorial governor Lew Wallace 130 years ago had promised to pardon him.
"Billy was not a good guy," Richardson said, but he acknowledged that "historians across the board generally favor Billy getting the pardon."
"I've dealt with this issue for eight years now. And I am going to wait until the last minute to make the decision. And it will be tomorrow."
Earlier, Richardson said requests for such posthumous pardons "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."
The legend of Billy the Kid -- real name William H. Bonney, although also known as Henry McCarty and Henry Antrim -- has inspired dozens of books and films, several impostors and attempts to exhume his grave to test for DNA.
He is believed to have murdered at least four people, and likely more. Some experts put the number killed by the outlaw at 21.
Some say Wallace, who wrote the novel "Ben Hur" from the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, promised to pardon Bonney, who was shot down by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881, when the legendary gunslinger was about 20 years old.
But Garrett's grandchildren oppose granting a pardon, saying it would amount to painting Garrett as a cold-blooded killer, "accusing our grandfather, in national and international media, of hideous crimes."
"We consider that an abomination as well as an inexcusable defamation of a great man," said Jarvis Patrick and Susan Floyd Garrett.
Various fans of the Billy the Kid legend have pushed for the pardon for more than a decade, including Elbert Garcia of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, who believes he is the great-grandson of the gunman.
Garcia wrote a book in 1999 explaining how his grandfather, Patrociano Garcia, was Bonney's son -- even though there is no proof the young bandit had any descendants.
Garcia said Thursday he was surprised by the opposition to the pardon from Garrett's grandchildren. "They don't know the true story," he said.
Richardson, a former US energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations -- who traveled to North Korea this month on his latest diplomatic mission -- is stepping down after two terms as governor of the southwestern US state.
Susana Martinez, who takes over as governor of New Mexico on Saturday, said recently she considers the proposed pardon a waste of time.
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