Jim Morrison Pardon

UPDATE: Doors' Jim Morrison pardoned for indecent exposure

Florida's Clemency Board has posthumously pardoned singer Jim Morrison of The Doors for his 40-year-old conviction on indecent exposure and profanity charges.

Outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist requested the pardon Thursday. The Clemency Board unanimously granted it.

Crist expressed doubts that Morrison actually exposed himself during a rowdy March 1, 1969, concert in Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium.

Morrison was appealing the conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971.

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Governor Charlie Crist of Florida has the votes to pardon Jim Morrison for an indecent exposure conviction stemming from an incident at a Doors concert on March 1, 1969.

From the Associated Press:

Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday got a commitment for the second of two votes needed from other members of the state's Board of Executive Clemency to approve the pardon.

Morrison was appealing the conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971. The meeting Thursday comes a day after the singer would have turned 67.

Crist can't issue a pardon on his own. He and the three-member Cabinet serve as the Clemency Board. Approval is required by the governor and at least two other members.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who was previously undecided, said Wednesday that she would vote for the pardon, said Sink spokesman Kevin Cate. She joined Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson who previously declared his support for the idea. Only Attorney General Bill McCollum remains uncommitted. All are leaving office Jan. 4.

The did-he-or-didn't-he debate has been revived by Crist's interest in the case. The surviving band members say a drunken Morrison teased the Miami crowd, but never exposed himself.

"It never actually happened. It was mass hypnosis," said Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboard player.

Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger said Morrison's behavior was influenced by an acting troupe that disrobed during plays.

"He was just doing a mind trip - as they would say - a mind trip on the audience and they totally fell for it," Manzarek said.

Manzarek said Morrison was far drunker than usual, to the point where they questioned whether he should go on stage.

"It was like, 'Oh my goodness, Jim, are you sure you can perform?' 'No, no, we're going on, we're going on,'"' Manzarek recalled.

Crist began considering a pardon for Morrison in 2007 at the at the urging of a fan. He says he has doubts about whether Morrison actually exposed his penis during the rowdy Miami concert March 1, 1969. Morrison was convicted of public profanity and indecent exposure and sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

The case has become murkier with the passage of years. Morrison's defense attorney said recently that the singer received a fair trial with credible witnesses on both sides, and fans who were at the show have differing recollections.

Here's what most people agree on: The Doors went on stage late, the Dinner Key Auditorium was oversold and wasn't air conditioned. Morrison was drunk and stopped in the middle of songs with an anti-authority, profanity-riddled rant.

A live lamb was brought on stage at one point, and Morrison also grabbed a police officer's hat and threw it in the crowd. The singer took off his shirt and fiddled with his belt, and fans poured onto the stage.

"There were 100 photos offered in evidence at the trial, photos of everything - Jim with the lamb, Jim with the hat, on the stage collapsing, riot in the audience. Not one photo of Jim's magnificent member," said Manzarek.

Morrison has been dead for almost 40 years.

Nonetheless, members of The Doors, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, are pleased with the pardon.

By teasing the audience that night in 1969, Morrison was trying to make a social statement, much like comedian Lenny Bruce, Krieger said.

"To Jim it was kind of a case of testing the morals of the time," Krieger said. "Lenny Bruce, he was the first guy who really put himself on the line as far as the law and how far they would go. Jim was kind of following in his footsteps. Not on purpose, but it kind of ended up that way."

New York's governor pardoned the late comedian on obscenity charges in 2002, 39 years after his conviction.

A pardon won't change Morrison's image, but it will right a wrong, Manzarek and Krieger said.

"Jim's legacy is one of Dionysian madness and frenzy and of a chaotic American poet. I don't think that the Miami episode has altered his image one iota," Manzarek said.

Krieger added: "Nobody would like to have that charge hanging over their head even if they are dead. I'm sure his family would be happy to see that go, especially since it never happened."

It appears that Charlie Crist will have his rock star moment before he leaves office.

Witnesses testified, but no one's Kodak Instamatic caught any actual exposing. YouTube hadn't been dreamed up yet, and in those days concert fans held up cigarette lighters, not cell phone cameras. (Kids, Mom and Dad will explain that one to you later.)

Morrison was convicted of misdemeanor indecent exposure and "open profanity." (How quaint, a charge for public cussing. We'd have to build a new jail just for coaches disputing bad calls.)

Morrison fans wondered darkly if his rock 'n' roll ways — not to mention his anti-Nixon sentiments — figured in. Sentenced to six months hard labor — really? — the rock legend died in France while his case was on appeal.

Crist, all of 13 back then, says he was asked about it by a reporter, looked into it and decided "it's the right thing to do," particularly for Morrison's family.

"It strikes me that everyone deserves a second chance," he said. "You have to have the capacity for forgiveness."

You think he might also he be talking about someone a little closer to home?

"Anything," Crist said in another interview on the pardon, "is possible."

Despite the deep tan and the rich-guy hair, Crist is kind of a fallen rock star himself. He fought authority (or Republicans) but authority always wins. He gets knocked down, but he gets up again. He's call-me-the-breeze 'til he's tamed by a babe (with sincerest apologies and no disrespect intended toward the first lady.)

It's a finale we should have expected: Charlie Crist, the lame duck who refuses to limp. How very rock 'n' roll.

If Morrison were alive, I wonder if he'd care about the pardon.

People can change a lot in 40 years. Maybe the Lizard King, at 67 years old, would be pleased to have his name cleared by Florida's governor. Maybe not.

Apparently, the pardon does matter to Crist.
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UPDATE: Widow: Jim Morrison wouldn't have wanted a pardon

The widow of The Doors singer Jim Morrison says Florida's intention to pardon him for a 1969 indecent exposure conviction is a cheap political ploy.

Patricia Kennealy Morrison told The Associated Press Thursday that she's not pleased with the pardon and doesn't think the late singer would be either because he didn't expose himself on stage as some claim.

She says the conviction should be expunged or the verdict overturned as fraud rather than just pardoned.

She says the two were married in a pagan ceremony by a Presbyterian minister about a year before he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971.

Jim Morrison was appealing the conviction when he died. Gov. Charlie Crist planned to ask the Clemency Board for the pardon Thursday and it is expected to pass.