TALAHASSEE, Fla.—Never say never. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is on somewhat of a crusade during his final weeks in office. His mission? To have famed Doors singer Jim Morrison pardoned for a 1969 indecent exposure conviction.
Long before 2 Live Crew raised hell with and made headlines for troublesome concerts in the Sunshine State, Morrison was hauled off to the pokey and charged with profanity and indecent exposure in Miami after he allegedly gave the crowd a look at more than his microphone. The Doors has just finished performing at the Dinner Key Auditorium.
Crist is scheduled to meet with the Florida clemency board today—what would have been Morrison’s 67th birthday—and is convinced he has enough votes to posthumously pardon the iconic singer/poet/Lizard King. Morrison was in the process of appealing the conviction, which carried a $500 fine and six-month jail sentence, when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971.
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson have publicly stated they would support the matter. Attorney General Bill McCollum had not announced his decision before press time.
The governor, who leaves office Jan. 4, told news outlets that he believes Morrison never exposed himself the night of March 1, 1969, but was instead the victim of a “culture war.”
"He was a young guy who maybe, or maybe not, made a mistake," Crist told reporters last month. "It strikes me that everyone deserves a second chance. You have to have the capacity for forgiveness."
In the years since the incident, fellow Doors members, including keyboardist Ray Manzarek, said the indecent exposure never happened, but rather Morrison teased the crowd into a state of mass hypnosis.
“He was just doing a mind-trip … a mind-trip on the audience and they totally fell for it,” he has been quoted.
