Associated Press
December 23, 2003

 

Lenny Bruce granted posthumous pardon

ALBANY, New York (AP) -- Comedian Lenny Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon by Gov. George Pataki Tuesday for a nearly 40-year-old obscenity conviction prompted by a foul-mouthed political commentary.

Pataki called his decision, the first posthumous pardon in New York state history, "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."

The campaign to win a pardon for Bruce was supported by his ex-wife and daughter, more than two dozen First Amendment lawyers and entertainers including Robin Williams, the Smothers Brothers and Penn and Teller.

Floyd Abrams, a leading First Amendment lawyer and member of the campaign, said Pataki's decision "is really a major step forward in recognizing the mistreatment of Lenny Bruce personally and of the First Amendment that Bruce defended."

During a November 1964 performance at Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, Bruce used more than 100 "obscene" words. Undercover police detectives attended the show, and later testified against Bruce. The charge was Giving an Obscene Performance.

He was convicted following a six-month trial. Bruce mishandled his own appeal, and, beset by legal and financial problems, died of a drug overdose in 1966 with the conviction still on the books. He was 37.

Bruce's daughter, Kitty, and his former wife, Honey Bruce Friedman, both sent along letters of support for the campaign last spring.

"I truly believe my father's soul can rest in peace with this," Kitty Bruce said at the time.

While Bruce was considered a pariah by some in the '60s, he's generally viewed now as a performer who totally changed the stand-up comedy business.

"Every night when I get onstage, I thank God or whoever's up there for Lenny Bruce," comedian Lisa Lampanelli, one of those who pressed for the pardon, said earlier this year. "He has become my hero."