AP reports The Doors lead singer will receive a pardon from Florida authorities on Thursday for a 1970 indecent exposure conviction following a Miami concert.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist has received commitment for the second of two votes needed from other members of the state's Board of Executive Clemency to approve the pardon.
Morrison was appealing the conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971. The meeting Thursday comes a day after the singer would have turned 67.
Crist can't issue a pardon on his own. He and the three-member Cabinet serve as the Clemency Board. Approval is required by the governor and at least two other members.
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who was previously undecided, said Wednesday that she would vote for the pardon, said Sink spokesman Kevin Cate. She joined Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson who previously declared his support for the idea. Only Attorney General Bill McCollum remains uncommitted. All are leaving office Jan. 4.
The did-he-or-didn't-he debate has been revived by Crist's interest in the case. The surviving band members say a drunken Morrison teased the Miami crowd, but never exposed himself.
"It never actually happened. It was mass hypnosis," Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboard player, told the AP.
Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger said Morrison's behavior was influenced by an acting troupe that disrobed during plays.
"He was just doing a mind trip — as they would say — a mind trip on the audience and they totally fell for it," Manzarek said.
"There were 100 photos offered in evidence at the trial, photos of everything — Jim with the lamb, Jim with the hat, on the stage collapsing, riot in the audience. Not one photo of Jim's magnificent member," said Manzarek.
Crist began considering a pardon for Morrison in 2007 at the at the urging of a fan. He says he has doubts about whether Morrison actually exposed his penis during the rowdy Miami concert March 1, 1969. Morrison was convicted of public profanity and indecent exposure and sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine.
A pardon won't change Morrison's image, but it will right a wrong, Manzarek and Krieger said.
"Jim's legacy is one of Dionysian madness and frenzy and of a chaotic American poet. I don't think that the Miami episode has altered his image one iota," Manzarek said.
Krieger added: "Nobody would like to have that charge hanging over their head even if they are dead. I'm sure his family would be happy to see that go, especially since it never happened."
Check out the full AP story here.
The Doors – The End
CBC-TV – Toronto, ON – 1967
