Morrison pardoned after 41 years

The Doors singer Jim Morrison will get a posthumous pardon for an indecent exposure conviction in Florida.

Charlie Crist, the state's Governor, got a commitment for enough votes from other members of the state's Board of Executive Clemency to approve it. Morrison was appealing against the conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971.

Yesterday's meeting about the pardon occurred a day after the singer would have been 67.

The did-he-or-didn't-he debate over what happened at the Miami concert was revived by Crist's interest in the case. Mr Crist began considering a pardon for Morrison in 2007 at the urging of a fan. He says he has doubts about whether Morrison actually exposed himself during the rowdy concert on 1 March 1969.

Morrison was convicted of public profanity and indecent exposure, and sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine. The surviving band members say a drunken Morrison teased the crowd, but never exposed himself. "It never actually happened. It was mass hypnosis," said Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player. "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 Morrison was far drunker than usual, to the point where they questioned whether he should go on stage.