Doors' Jim Morrison's Widow, Attorney React To Pardon
MIAMI (CBS4) -You could say deceased rock and roll legend Jim Morrison finally got his day in court.
Four decades after he was convicted of exposing himself and using profanity at a concert in Coconut Grove in 1969, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and the states clemency board granted him a pardon. Fans had been petitioning for it since 2007.
"I'm very pleased he's been pardoned, maybe his soul will rest more peacefully now," says Miami Attorney Robert Josefsberg .
Josefsberg was one of Morrison's lawyers.
He remembers a very different Jim Morrison than controversial one depicted in movies and print.
"I spent six weeks with him and contrary to the image from Oliver Stone's movie, he was kind, considerate. He was sober and he had a great since of humor, he was a very decent person he was 27 and I was 32, we really enjoyed being with each other," say Josefsberg.
During Morrison's trial for indecent exposure and using profanity, some witnesses testified that they saw him expose himself, told jurors he didn't.
Morrison took the stand testifying that he did use some profanity but denied the other charges.
"I just think it's a complete travesty of justice," says his widow Patricia Kenneally, a novelist.
Kenneally was at the trial and says she feels her husband did nothing wrong back then that needed pardoning.
"I think he would reject this completely out of hand.,just say ya know, no thanks, I can't be bothered," she says.
Kenneally says Morrison felt the charges were a political set up.
At the time the country was involved in an unpopular war and Morrison was part of the counter-culture that was anti-establishment.
Some believe Morrison's conviction for indecent exposure and profanity was the beginning of the end of his career.
He was sentenced to six months in jail and fined 500 dollars.
He died a year later in Paris at the age of 27.
At the time he was appealing his conviction.
Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida.
