jim morrison receives posthumous pardon from florida's clemency board!

it's official - the four member florida board of clemency voted, unanimously, to pardon jim morrison of his 1970 conviction for indecent exposure. the charges stemmed from a 1969 concert appearance by the doors in miami - where, the prosecution alleged, morrision dropped his pants and exposed himself to the audience.

news of a potential pardon surfaced last month when governor charlie crist announced his support for the pardon. the governor, acting alone, could not grant the pardon. he needed a majority votes of the clemency board, which took action this morning, to secure the pardon. governor crist took the unusual step of speaking on behalf of jim morrison at the hearing. here are some excerpts from his remarks:

Much controversy surrounds this conviction, and not only because many witnesses testified they did not see Mr. Morrison expose himself.

Controversy also exists because Mr. Morrison was not arrested until four days after the concert. A case was brought against him only after newspaper articles recounted the alleged events at the concert, based on a complaint filed by an employee of the state attorney’s office who attended the concert.
...

Mr. Morrison appealed his judgment and sentence; however, he died before the appeal was heard. His death prevented him from exercising his right to a direct appeal, a right given to every American by the United States Constitution. If his appeal had been heard, a reviewing court could have resolved the controversies surrounding his conviction.
...

The words of an appellate judge, penned a decade before Mr. Morrison’s trial, provide insight into the question before us today: When death prevents the accused from appealing his judgment, the conviction is “a nullity” and “[j]urisdiction to determine the issue of guilt or innocence is now assumed by the ultimate arbiter of human affairs.”

a full copy of crist's remarks are appended to the ny times story reporting the pardon.

congratulations, in heaven, jim morrison :D

pardon jim morrison?!

if all goes as planned, the doors of posthumous pardon may finally open for jim morrison - more than 40 years after he was convicted of misdemeanor incident exposure and profanity charges (he was acquitted of others) and sentence to six months in jail. while morrison's onstage behavior was gross and disgusting, his prosecution was vile and politically inspired. the ny times has an interesting story on the atmosphere surrounding the news, which includes an interview with one of morrison's defense counsel.

morrison never served any of the six month sentence, the decision was still on appeal when he died in paris of a herion overdose the following year. the florida clemency board meets on december 9 and will decide whether to grant the pardon. doors and jim morrison fans have petitioned for his pardon in previous years and under earlier governors. but this is is the first time a florida governor (albeit with less than 2 months remaining on his term) has indicated that he is willing to grant the pardon.

hopefully the pardon will issue. then jim morrison can join the likes of legendary lenny bruce, who himself received a posthumous pardon in new york in 2004, from then governor george pataki, for his 1964 obscenity conviction that stemmed from bruce's comic performance!

pardon jim morrison!!

"when you're strange: a film about the doors" movie review

"when you're strange: a film about the doors" opened in limited release at the angelica here in new york city today. it premiered at the sundance film festival last year to generally excellent reviews. since the premiere, the initial voice over, done by (writer/director) tom dicillo himself, was replaced by a narration performed by johnny depp! it's a fascinating film, composed entirely of archival film clips (mainly from concert and studio performances).

one highlight is the rarely (if ever) seen footage from jim morrison's experimental film, "hwy: an american pastoral," that was shot in 1969. it's the glue that brings together the multitude of film clips assembled by dicillio. the completed documentary exists in a time warp that encapsulates the rise and fall of the doors. if the film has one weakness, it's the inclusion of one too many stock images of the 1960's. how many times to we need to see images of the "turbulent" times - especially when they're at the expense of additional footage of the doors!

but overall what dicillo accomplished with his take on the band is well worth watching (if not a must watch for fans). the gritty verite of "when you're strange" is a startling contrast from oliver stones's slick dramatization "the doors." while val kilmer did morrison justice, there really is only one jim morrison. watching morrison perform, watching him self-destruct on screen, is powerful stuff. that said, the film takes a much broader look at the rest of the band members. it's not (as one might expect) just about jim!

aside from the "hwy" footage, one real nugent in this film is the "wild child" studio sessions. the behind the scenes look at the evolution of the song, the work of the band in putting it together makes a powerful impression on how serious these guys were about the music. that aspect doesn't come off in the concert footage - which mainly devolved into jim's efforts to rile up the audience. in that vein, the footage from the miami show that led to morrison's prosecution (and conviction) on lewdiness charges is pretty harsh stuff.

miami, which itself followed the the images from the equally disastrous hartford concert where jim taunted the police (after one had maced him backstage) until they stopped the show, included a particularly nasty screed where jim repeatedly insulted the audience. despite the apparent bottoming out of their touring plans (all the shows were eventually cancelled), the doors managed to regroup and a year later managed to release "l.a. woman" and once again top the american charts.

but the band's resurrection was short-lived. within six months morrison would be found dead in paris bathtub - from a heroin overdose. but the film doesn't dwell on the particulars of his death. instead, we get a matter of fact portrait - in line with the other rock stars that preceded him (notably hendrix and joplin). there wasn't any moralizing about his self-destruction and the end of the band. in this respect, one could say "when you're strange" focused on the highs and lows of the band and bypassed the explanations.

interestingly, i just finished john desmore's "riders on the storm" only two months ago - so the doors saga (via desmore's point of view) was fresh in my mind as i watched the film. all three surviving band members worked with dicillo in varying degrees (at a minimum, they looked at his work in progress and agreed to his interview requests). all in all, except for some of the lame 60's stock footage - it's a good documentary, and a story well told by dicillo.

jim morrison died in paris of heroin overdose, 38 years ago today

on july 3, 1971, jim morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his paris apartment. while no autopsy was performed, the anecdotal evidence suggested that morrison died of a heroin overdose. and so closed the doors to his very brief, but intense, life on earth - he was only 27 years old! amazingly, the doors continued to perform and record without him, as a trio, until the band finally called it quits in 1973.

my interest in jim morrison and the doors peaked in high school, when that iconic image (the head shot of which is the above photo) of morrison, arms outstretched, was postered to my bedroom door. thereafter my fascination with would periodically reemerge: reading the now classic biography, "no one gets out of here alive," watching val kilmer play him in "the doors" and, most recently, watching two original band members in concert!

last year i caught "riders on the storm" with ray manzarek and robby kreiger, play at the fillmore here in nyc. their front man was a dead ringer for morrison, and so too were their covers of the doors classics. great memories!

so take a minute and listen to some doors music today - in honor of a wild child who broke on thru to the other side - way too soon.

r.i.p. jim morrison