Florida Gov. wants The Doors' Jim Morrison pardoned

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wants The Doors' Jim Morrison pardoned

Brendan Farrington
The Associated Press
Nov. 17, 2010

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist wants to posthumously pardon rock 'n' roll wild man Jim Morrison, who was the lead singer of The Doors and was famously convicted of exposing himself at an anarchic 1969 concert in Miami.

Crist, a 54-year-old baby boomer and Morrison fan whose favorite Doors song is Light My Fire, said that the evidence that Morrison unzipped his pants was flimsy and that prosecutors were trying to make an example of the singer.

"There's some troubling aspects to it as to whether there was a valid conviction. The more I learn about it, the more I'm convinced a wrong may have been done here," said Crist, who leaves office in January.

Exactly what happened that night at the Dinner Key Auditorium is one of rock 'n' roll history's enduring mysteries. Morrison clearly teased the crowd and went into an obscenity-laced rant.

Morrison was found guilty in 1970 of indecent exposure and public profanity and was fined $500 and sentenced to six months in jail. But he never did the time. He was appealing his conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971 at age 27.

Crist said he plans to ask Florida Cabinet members to support a pardon the next time they meet as the Clemency Board. Crist needs at least two of the three Cabinet members to vote with him.

This guy is just insane. No wonder he's out of a job.

I personally don't think it's a bad idea myself. But Crist is a nutjob all the same.