Crist willing to consider Jim Morrison pardon before leaving office

The Hill

In his last two months in office, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is considering a December surprise: a posthumous pardon for Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, for indecent exposure charges after an infamous 1969 Miami concert.

Are you freak'n kidding me? Hey .. I like the Doors as much as the next person, but our courts are tied up with REAL issues. He's going to use court time, court money, etc etc to give a pardon to some dead rocker that he worships? The courts have already decided this, decades ago. Previous Govs have refused to pardon Jim Morrison. The evidence was clear .. his own band admitted the guy had been drinking heavily ... there was a conviction ... he died without serving time. End of story.

Ironically, Morrison was cleared of drunkenness charges in the ensuing trial, as well as a felony charge for lewd and lascivious behavior, but was convicted of exposure and profanity. Morrison and his lawyers had hoped to turn the trial into a First Amendment battle, and he claimed in several later interviews that the trial was a sham. Morrison’s death in 1971 ended the case without him ever serving any prison time.

This is absurd. It's going to tie up the courts when they could be dealing with real issues and it's going to suck money. What is the purpose? Some ego stroke for Crist since he lost. (I'm glad he lost. If this is the kind of crap he'd do with the people's money and what kind of regard he has for the courts ... BAH!)

reply to post by FlyersFan


Jim is dead.
Does the governor not realize this?

reply to post by asperetty




Well, at least he is thinking about his constituents.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Just wondering how long the courts get tied up on something like this? What exactly is the process? I'm asking because you obviously know.

Originally posted by amc621
What exactly is the process?

Depends on the state. There is the Clemency Board to go through. All the paperwork and time and $$ spent going through them. There is a state cabinet hearing, and the Govenor attends. If expungement or sealing is involved, that takes time and money and manpower to go through records and do that. Law enforcement records, court records, etc have to be brought up and updated, etc. Yes .. being this old the records are probably in boxes etc. Doubt they went back 40 years to put Jim Morrisons lil' ol' conviction on a computer somewhere.

I don't know if Florida issues pardons for people who are considered 'rehabilitated' (not gotten into trouble for 10 years or more). But from what I understand any offense that goes into a sexual nature never gets 'pardoned'. And he was convicted of 'exposure'. That's sexual ...

The expungement process for criminal records is handled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Florida Statutes and Chapter 11C-7 of the Florida Administrative Code are what they go by. It can be a lengthy process. I think the pardon board meets once every six months ... something like that.

All the lawyers involved. All the law clerks. All the administrative support. All the time and money for these people. And who is going to pay the $1500 fee that is charged by Florida for getting the pardon process started? Betchya the tax payer! This is all taking up time and resources that could be used to handle cases that are taking place NOW .. with live people .. people who were wrongly convicted NOW ... not a dead rocker who got drunk and exposed himself decades ago.

It's absurd.

reply to post by chiponbothshoulders


Makes no difference to the man who was guilty and has been dead for decades.

Makes a difference to those waiting their turn for pardons. Gotta' get in line behind a guilty dead guy. Gotta' wait longer .. more stress ... still got the criminal record which makes it harder to get work to support him/her self.

Makes a difference to the tax payer ... wasted tax money on a boooooooondoggle for Christ to lick his wounds cuz' he lost the latest poltiical race.

reply to post by FlyersFan
Kind of an obvious indication of how wasteful our government is with our hard earned money fer sher.

I was asking how this does anything for the majority down here in the trenches.

Sorry I was not more clear.

Originally posted by chiponbothshoulders
I was asking how this does anything for the majority down here in the trenches.

OOOOOHHHH.

What this does for us in the trenches is reaffirm that Politicians are self serving idiots. That they waste time, resources, and tax money on stroking their own egos and trying to build themselves a legacy. What it does for the majority is spend their tax money for no good reason, and clog up the justice system.

There. How's that for an explaination of what it does for us? Nailed it .. didn't I?

Guardian UK
Well .. he did it. With everything else going on, Crist indulged himself and did it.
Way to earn that paycheck, Mr. Crist.