Lenny Bruce died broke in 1966 with an appeal pending, and New York pardoned him in 2003

On 4 November 1964 a New York court found Lenny Bruce and club owner Howard Solomon guilty of obscenity. On 21 December 1964 he was sentenced to four months in a workhouse and freed on bail pending appeal. Biography.com reports he declared bankruptcy in autumn 1965^†. He was found dead in his bathroom on 3 August 1966, and the cause was acute morphine poisoning. The police photograph showed him naked on the floor with a syringe. Producer Phil Spector bought the negatives to keep them from the press, according to Wikipedia^†. The appeal ended with his death. On 23 December 2003 New York Governor George Pataki granted a posthumous pardon, 37 years later. His only child, Kitty Bruce, kept his papers. Brandeis University acquired them in 2014. Kitty Bruce died on 13 May 2026, aged 70, per Variety. The sources found do not describe his estate or creditor claims^†.