Near the close of his second term as governor, New Mexico’s Bill Richardson came close to making good on a 2003 pledge to potentially pardon Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid. A history buff, Richardson had looked into a promise from former governor Lee Wallace to Billy in 1879 to pardon the gunslinger in exchange for testimony before a grand jury in an unrelated murder trial. But Wallace never followed through in the end. “I’ve decided not to pardon Billy the Kid because of a lack of conclusiveness and the historical ambiguity as to why Governor Wallace reneged on his pardon,” Richardson told Good Morning America today. Poor Billy. Even Jim Morrison got his pardon this year, though to be fair, he didn’t shoot four to nine people to death.
Gov. Bill Richardson: ‘I’ve Decided Not To Pardon Billy the Kid’ [ABC News]
