'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Billy the Kid, the Old West outlaw who killed at least three lawmen and tried to cut a deal from jail with territorial authorities, won't be pardoned, Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday, nearly 130 years after the gunslinger's death.
After a lengthy debate that aroused national and international attention, Bill Richardson announced on his last day as New Mexico's governor that he would not grant a pardon to long-dead outlaw Billy the Kid.
More people say they favor a pardon for Billy the Kid than oppose the idea after Gov. Bill Richardson's office set up a website and e-mail address to take comments on a possible posthumous pardon for one of New Mexico's most famous Old West outlaws.
For notorious Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid, it looks like Christmas might yet come, just 129 years too late. And some are wondering why.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says he's received a formal petition to pardon legendary gunslinger Billy the Kid, and will make a decision on it before he leaves office at the end of the year.
he most popular plots in American horror movies are about the "undead" - deceased people who won't stay dead. Last month, New Mexico's Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson announced, "If there is evidence, I will consider pardoning Billy the Kid." There is a growing controversy in that state as to whether a noted mass murderer and cop killer of the Old West should be granted a posthumous pardon.
But when the Las Vegas, N.M., Gazette asked Wallace shortly before he left office about prospects he would spare the Kid's life, Wallace replied: "I can't see how a fellow like him should expect any clemency from me."
And, he noted, when the Kid was awaiting trial in Brady's killing, "he wrote four letters for aid, but never used the word pardon."
