The Doors‘ late frontman Jim Morrison has been granted a posthumous pardon for a conviction of indecent exposure.
The singer was convicted of exposing himself while onstage at a show in Miami in 1969. Morrison denied doing anything wrong and was appealing the conviction when he suffered a fatal heart attack in Paris in 1971.
Florida‘s Board of Executive Clemency have now voted unanimously to posthumously pardon the frontman, reports CNN.
The singer’s partner, Patricia Kennealy Morrison, who was against the pardon, said the outcome was not a shock. “Since the original charges and trial were a publicity stunt to begin with, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that the pardon should follow in those footsteps,” she said.
She added that Morrison “did nothing to be pardoned for” and said that his record should have been expunged.
Outgoing Florida Governor Charlie Crist proposed the pardon and said the conviction should have been dismissed after Morrison‘s death “so that he was again presumed innocent”.
“What I do know is that if someone hasn’t committed a crime, that should be recognised,” he said before the vote. “We live in a civil society that understands that lasting legacy of a human being, and maybe the last act for which they may be known, is something that never occurred in the first place, it’s never a bad idea to try to right a wrong.
“A pardon corrects the fact that Mr Morrison is now unable to take advantage of the presumption of innocence that is the cornerstone of the American criminal justice system.”
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