A PARDON FOR THE KID?

I must confess that I don’t really get the need for Gov. Bill Richardson – who generally seems fairly well balanced for a politician – to issue a pardon for Billy the Kid after all these years. By most accounts Bill Bonney was a well advanced, left-handed sociopath by the time Pat Garrett shot him dead. And hadn’t he already tuned down a pardon offered by the then Governor Lew Wallace? (Who also wrote Ben Hur.) New Mexico could put up a statue, or open an amusement park, that would be way cool. Billy already has a Sam Peckinpah move about him, and his own website. So why a pardon? I don’t know about you, but I prefer my outlaws unrepentant.

"(AP) The showdown between frontier lawman Pat Garrett and notorious outlaw Billy the Kid has fascinated the American public for nearly 130 years with its classic, Old West storyline. As it turns out, the feud isn't completely over. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is considering granting a posthumous pardon to Billy the Kid, angering descendants of Garrett who call it an insult to recognize such a violent outlaw. Three of the late lawman's grandchildren sent a letter to Richardson this week that asked him not to pardon the outlaw, saying such an act would represent an "inexcusable defamation" of Garrett. "If Billy the Kid was living amongst us now, would you issue a pardon for someone who made his living as a thief and, more egregiously, who killed four law enforcement officers and numerous others?" the Garrett family wrote. The issue has resurfaced because Richardson asked a New Mexico columnist earlier this year to check with historians to measure their support for issuing a pardon. The governor plans to meet with Garrett family members next week to discuss the issue.” (Click here for more)

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