Crist Pardons Jim Morrison

Dade County Public Safety Department/<a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/celebrity/music/jim-morrison">The Smoking Gun</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s term expires in a month, and it seems the pro-gun, anti-big-government, is-he-or-isn’t he conservative has decided it’s time to get down to the really important stuff: pardoning dead rock stars for indecent exposure.

As The Miami Herald and a slew of other sites have reported (with more than a hint of glee), yesterday Gov. Crist passionately lobbied a state panel to grant Doors frontman Jim Morrison a posthumous pardon for a March 1969 incident during which the singer—who was “far drunker than usual,” according to bandmate Ray Manzarek—may have exposed himself to an audience at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium.

According to the Herald

Crist said the pardon was an acknowledgement of Morrison’s enduring “body of work” as an artist, and an effort to remove a “blot on his record for something he may or may not have done when he was essentially a kid.” Whether Morrison actually exposed himself has long been a matter of speculation and debate. Although more than a hundred photos were placed into evidence at the trial, none showed Morrison exposed.

Morrison’s pardon was unanimously confirmed by a four-person state clemency panel. It’s not exactly clear what aroused Crist’s sudden passion for the deceased rock star; the governor basically said he started thinking about it a few years ago, at the urging of a Doors fan. But Crist shouldn’t expect any thank-yous from Morrison’s family: Whether the singer exposed himself or not, Patricia Kennealy Morrison, Morrison’s widow, told CNN Jim would have been pissed.

 

 



 

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate