Thursday, December 9, 2010

Better Late Than Never, I Guess

Why it took nearly 40 years since his death for this to occur is beyond me (or why anyone would bother pardoning someone who is long dead and never cared about being pardoned in the first place), but Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida is pardoning late Doors' front man Jim Morrison for an indecent exposure conviction from 1969. Morrison was appealing the conviction when he died in 1971.

From AP, "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."

"To Jim it was kind of a case of testing the morals of the time," Doors guitarist Robby 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." 

Morrison was pardoned in 2002 for an obscenity conviction in New York. 

I'm sure that Jim is laughing about this wherever he is. 

No comments: