Doors frontman Jim Morrison pardoned 40 years after conviction

Forty-one years ago, the state sent a message about community standards, charging rock icon Jim Morrison of the Doors with exposing himself during a 1969 Miami concert.

On Thursday, the state reconsidered, and offered Morrison a pardon.

The posthumous pardon isn't going to settle the boundaries of artistic freedom, or alter the Morrison myth in the annals of rock history. Nor is it likely to settle the ongoing debate about whether Morrison ever actually did pull his zipper down at the concert that night.

But it does send a message about forgiveness, said outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist, MiamiHerald.com reports.

During a rowdy Doors show at the Dinner Key Auditorium, fans claimed that Morrison exposed his manhood onstage after a drunken tirade. Soon after, Morrison was arrested on charges of public profanity and indecent exposure, for which he was sentenced to six months in jail and given a $500 fine. The late singer was appealing the conviction when he was found dead in a bathtub in Paris, in 1971.

Not everyone is pleased about the pardon, however. Patricia Kennealy Morrison, a woman who claims she was married to the Doors frontman, told the AP she was disappointed - and believes Morrison would be as well - because the incident never took place.

Kennealy Morrison insisted the singer revealed to her on multiple occasions he thought he was being made "a scapegoat of the counterculture movement," according to MTV.com.