FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 9, 2010
CONTACT:
ACLU of Florida Media Office, (786) 363-2737 or media@aclufl.org
MIAMI – Several Miami rock bands released a letter today in response to the Florida Clemency Board’s consideration of posthumously pardoning Jim Morrison of the rock band “The Doors.” The group of bands expressed support for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida’s request that the board fully restore the voting and other civil rights of non-violent ex-offenders.
The ACLU has requested that the board adopt an Executive Order before the clemency board members leave office that would immediately and automatically restore civil and voting rights to Floridians with past “Level I” felony convictions for non-violent offenses .
The letter -- signed by members of Animal Tropical, Awesome New Republic (ANR), Buzz Killingtons, Darling What's Going On?, Down Home Southernaires, Dropping Jupiter, Jesse Jackson, Loyalty.Prophet, Minimal, Plains, and Soul Satern 6 -- “urge[s] the clemency board to ‘break on through to the other side,’ by signing an executive order making the civil rights restoration process truly automatic.” The ACLU was joined by several local, state and national organizations in pushing for just such an Executive Order in a December 3 letter.
“We are incredibly excited to see local artists rallying behind this critical issue,” said Muhammed Malik, ACLU of Florida Racial Justice and Voting Rights Associate. “Governor Crist said that pardoning Morrison is important to him ‘because justice is one of the most important things we can stand for as a society.’ We agree, but we also believe that the issue before the Clemency Board is justice for all, not just for dead rock stars.
“Rock and roll has for decades carried a message of freedom, integrity and breaking down the barriers of injustice,” continued Malik. “If the Clemency Board truly wants to honor the spirit of rock and roll and end their terms with a true civil rights legacy, they will honor the 2007 promise to bring tens of thousands of Floridians with no history of violent offenses back into the democratic process. Then, the members of the clemency board will be able to stand high and look themselves in the mirror.”
A copy of the ACLU of Florida’s December 3rd letter is available here:
http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/LetterToClemencyBoard.pdf
The text of the letter released by the bands is below:
"Rock and roll is quintessentially American: bold and progressive. It is a musical genre that has always been about breaking boundaries. In that sense, recent news about a potential pardon for Jim Morrison provides a great opportunity for us to turn up the AMP on Florida’s Clemency Board and, in the spirit of rock, ask it to reform its flawed civil rights restoration process. Back in April 2007, Governor Crist stepped on to the stage with a promise to make the civil rights restoration approval process in Florida “automatic.” But the changes he made never lived up to the hype, so we ask Governor Crist to fulfill his promise to Floridians—now is the time to truly rock out for civil rights.
We as fellow rockers in Miami feel that this gesture, simply put, does not rock because by celebrating one of our dead lyrical heroes with a pardon, it ignores hundreds of thousands of disfranchised Floridians who have been banned from voting, sitting on a jury, and running for office. The civil rights restoration process has been too complicated, too sluggish and too silent on the rights of Floridians with a felony conviction. Instead of automatically restoring the rights of ex-offenders who want to contribute to society, our clemency process leaves them flailing in a mosh pit of callous injustice. Jim Morrison once said “If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.” If the Clemency Board wants to achieve a shred of a civil rights legacy, it should follow Jim Morrison’s advice and deliver all Floridians from limitations, such as Florida’s egregious Reconstruction-era civil rights ban.
American rock music is known for pushing the limits of convention. With the swagger of a rebel Jim Morrison pushed the limits of rock and roll with his music and antics, but his legacy will not be diminished - whether he is pardoned or not. However, Governor Crist and the other members of the clemency board can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of Floridians alive today by making restoration of civil rights a truly automatic process before he and the other board members leave office on January 4th. This move would truly “light a fire” in the spirit of democracy and rock and roll—as Jim Morrison put it: “The time to hesitate is through.”
We the undersigned, while acknowledging that a pardon for Jim Morrison is cool, urge the clemency board to “break on through to the other side,” by signing an executive order making the civil rights restoration process truly automatic."
