[1]Governor Bill Richardson said on Thursday that he had received a formal petition to pardon Billy the Kid, and that he would make a decision before he left office at the end of the year.
Some believe that Lew Wallace, then the territorial governor, promised Billy the Kid a pardon in return for his testimony in a murder trial. Randi McGinn, a trial lawyer in Albuquerque, submitted a petition on Tuesday.
Billy the Kid, the legendary outlaw whose real name was William Bonney, had written Wallace, volunteering to testify at the murder trial of three men if Wallace annulled pending charges against him, including an indictment for murder in the 1878 shooting death of Sheriff William Brady.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/newsm1jpg-014