Scammer
Banned
The charismatic but unpredictable lead singer of American rock band The Doors may receive a posthumous pardon almost 40 years after he was convicted of exposing himself on stage during a show in Miami.
Outgoing Florida Governor Charlie Crist is proposing an official let-off for the legendary hell-raiser. And the state clemency board meets Thursday to consider the request.
Under state law, a pardon must have the consent of the governor and at least two other members of the Florida Board of Executive Clemency.
"It's never a bad idea to try to right a wrong," said Crist -- who is set to leave office in January after losing his bid for the Senate in the recent midterm elections.
Jim Morrison had been performing with the band at a typically raucous concert at Miami's Key Auditorium on March 1, 1969, when the incident took place. Reportedly drunk and slurring obscenities at the crowd, he was accused of unzipping his pants and simulating a sex act, a charge he denied.
Despite being acquitted of lascivious behavior and drunkenness, Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and open profanity and sentenced to six months in jail. He was still appealing the verdict in 1971 when he died in Paris at the age of 27.
Doors fans have long appealed for an official pardon for Morrison, petitioning previous Florida governors without success. Many argue that the trial was a sham and that there was no conclusive evidence supporting the exposure charge against Morrison.
But Patricia Keannerly-Morrison, author of the book "Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison," said the singer would reject such a pardon.
"He would hate, loathe, detest and despise the whole idea," she wrote in a letter to Crist. "He would think it is yet another pathetic attempt by the State of Florida to use him for its own cheap and cynical publicity-hungry purposes, and I have no doubt but that he would rip the 'pardon' into tiny pieces."
