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[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2010/12/30/jk.gov.bill.richardson.pardon.cnn[/video]
The New Mexico governor will announce Friday whether he will pardon the Wild West's legendary outlaw Billy the Kid in the death of a law enforcement officer more than a century ago.
Gov. Bill Richardson will make the announcement during a live broadcast of ABC's "Good Morning America," his office said. The announcement will be about 7 a.m. ET on the same day the governor leaves office.
Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty, but was also known as William H. Bonney and Henry Antrim. He died at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett, 129 years ago. He was 21 at the time of his death.
Some members of the Garrett family oppose the pardon. Besides arguing that Billy the Kid was an incorrigible killer, they want to make sure the sheriff is absolved of any wrongdoing related to the killing.
But the governor has said he will not do anything that casts a cloud on Pat Garrett.
Some residents, including Gov.-elect Susana Martinez, have said there are more pressing issues facing the state.
Richardson, a Billy the Kid buff, is looking at a promise to issue the outlaw a pardon made by territorial Gov. Lew Wallace about 130 years ago.
"A promise is a promise and should be enforced," said Albuquerque defense attorney Randi McGinn, who filed the petition for the pardon and volunteered to handle the case for free.
Garrett killed Billy the Kid in July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner, weeks after the outlaw escaped from a jail.
The sheriff, legend has it, was hiding in the dark and shot the Kid when he entered a room. Garrett was gunned down in 1908 at age 57.
Richardson has said he will be deciding only the matter of a promise to Bonney made by Wallace.
"We're not offering a blanket pardon for everything he did," said Eric Witt, the governor's deputy chief of staff.
Wallace -- who had also been a Union general in the Civil War and wrote the novel "Ben-Hur" -- had promised to grant Bonney amnesty for the fatal shooting of Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady and other "misdeeds" if he agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating another murder. Bonney cooperated, but the pardon didn't happen.
According to Mark Lee Gardner and other historians, Bonney at one point wrote to Wallace, asking him to honor the deal.
Garrett's family argues Bonney decided to flee house arrest, making the pardon moot. He eventually was convicted in Brady's death and was sentenced to death, the petition states. But he escaped from jail on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies.
"Still, regardless of Billy's crimes, the motives of Richardson or the hollowness of posthumous justice, it all comes back to Wallace's promise. A deal is a deal, and 129 years doesn't change that. Billy is owed a pardon," Gardner wrote earlier this year in the Los Angeles Times.
The New Mexico governor will announce Friday whether he will pardon the Wild West's legendary outlaw Billy the Kid in the death of a law enforcement officer more than a century ago.
Gov. Bill Richardson will make the announcement during a live broadcast of ABC's "Good Morning America," his office said. The announcement will be about 7 a.m. ET on the same day the governor leaves office.
Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty, but was also known as William H. Bonney and Henry Antrim. He died at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett, 129 years ago. He was 21 at the time of his death.
Some members of the Garrett family oppose the pardon. Besides arguing that Billy the Kid was an incorrigible killer, they want to make sure the sheriff is absolved of any wrongdoing related to the killing.
But the governor has said he will not do anything that casts a cloud on Pat Garrett.
Some residents, including Gov.-elect Susana Martinez, have said there are more pressing issues facing the state.
Richardson, a Billy the Kid buff, is looking at a promise to issue the outlaw a pardon made by territorial Gov. Lew Wallace about 130 years ago.
"A promise is a promise and should be enforced," said Albuquerque defense attorney Randi McGinn, who filed the petition for the pardon and volunteered to handle the case for free.
Garrett killed Billy the Kid in July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner, weeks after the outlaw escaped from a jail.
The sheriff, legend has it, was hiding in the dark and shot the Kid when he entered a room. Garrett was gunned down in 1908 at age 57.
Richardson has said he will be deciding only the matter of a promise to Bonney made by Wallace.
"We're not offering a blanket pardon for everything he did," said Eric Witt, the governor's deputy chief of staff.
Wallace -- who had also been a Union general in the Civil War and wrote the novel "Ben-Hur" -- had promised to grant Bonney amnesty for the fatal shooting of Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady and other "misdeeds" if he agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating another murder. Bonney cooperated, but the pardon didn't happen.
According to Mark Lee Gardner and other historians, Bonney at one point wrote to Wallace, asking him to honor the deal.
Garrett's family argues Bonney decided to flee house arrest, making the pardon moot. He eventually was convicted in Brady's death and was sentenced to death, the petition states. But he escaped from jail on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies.
"Still, regardless of Billy's crimes, the motives of Richardson or the hollowness of posthumous justice, it all comes back to Wallace's promise. A deal is a deal, and 129 years doesn't change that. Billy is owed a pardon," Gardner wrote earlier this year in the Los Angeles Times.