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March 30, 2005
LOS ANGELES,
California (CNN) --
Famed attorney
Johnnie Cochran,
perhaps best known
for his successful
defense of O.J.
Simpson, died
Tuesday afternoon
after suffering from
an inoperable brain
tumor, his family
said. He was 67.
"Johnnie Cochran was
a loving, heartful
human being who
cared about
everybody," said
William Epps, pastor
of the Second
Baptist Church in
Los Angeles, which
Cochran attended for
18 years.
Cochran died at
12:30 p.m. PT (3:30
p.m. ET) at his home
in Los Angeles. His
family was by his
side and he had been
in a hospice, Epps
said.
Cochran's family and
members of his law
firm issued a joint
statement saying the
"world has lost not
only a legendary
attorney, but an
outstanding
humanitarian."
"Johnnie's career
will be noted as one
marked by celebrity
cases and clientele.
But he and his
family were most
proud of the work he
did on behalf of
those in the
community," the
statement said.
"As Johnnie always
said, 'An injustice
anywhere is a threat
to justice
everywhere.' It was
his rallying cry as
he worked to right
many wrongs, and as
he provided a voice
to those who needed
to be heard. He was
deeply committed to
helping and
inspiring others,
especially young
people."
'If it doesn't fit, you
must acquit'
Simpson told CNN: "I
loved him as a good
Christian man. I
look at Johnny as a
great Christian. I
knew him as that. He
was a great guy."
Simpson said he last
saw Cochran at a Los
Angeles Lakers
basketball game a
few months ago and
found the flamboyant
lawyer to be in good
spirits. "We were
praying for him
then, and I still
am," Simpson said.
Simpson added that
he knew Cochran long
before he hired the
African-American
lawyer to lead his
"Dream Team"
defense. "I was in
social circles with
Johnnie, and we knew
each other in that
way," he said.
Cochran was the lead
attorney for
Simpson, accused of
murder in the 1994
slayings of his
ex-wife, Nicole
Brown Simpson, and
her acquaintance Ron
Goldman.
During Simpson's
1995 trial, Cochran
famously quipped,
"If it doesn't fit,
you must acquit," in
reminding jurors
during his summation
that the former star
football running
back couldn't fit
his hands inside a
bloody glove found
at the scene of the
killings.
The simple rhyme
hammered home for
jurors the defense
argument that the
evidence against
Simpson not only
failed to fit the
crime, but the
defendant himself.
Cochran convinced
the jury that race
defined the Simpson
case and the police
investigation
against the onetime
Heisman Trophy
winner at the
University of
Southern California.
Simpson was
acquitted in the
criminal case, but
he was later found
liable in a civil
trial and order to
pay the victims'
families $33
million.
Comedian Lenny Bruce
Johnnie L. Cochran
Jr. was born in
Shreveport,
Louisiana, on
October 2, 1937, the
great-grandson of a
slave, and grew up
in a prosperous
family.
He was raised in Los
Angeles and attended
UCLA, supporting
himself by selling
insurance policies
for his father's
company. He
graduated in 1959
and earned his law
degree from Loyola
Marymount University
in 1963.
He passed the
California bar in
1963, then took a
job in Los Angeles
as a deputy city
attorney in the
criminal division.
His career was
intertwined with
celebrities almost
from its beginning:
Among his early
cases was a 1964
effort to prosecute
comedian Lenny Bruce
on obscenity
charges.
In 1965, he entered
private practice and
soon opened his own
firm, Cochran,
Atkins & Evans. His
current practice,
The Cochran Firm,
was established in
1981 and has offices
in 12 states and the
District of
Columbia.
He made his name
with a series of
high-profile police
brutality and
criminal cases in
the late 1970s and
worked as a Los
Angeles County
deputy district
attorney in the late
1970s and early
1980s.
He negotiated a 1993
settlement in a
civil lawsuit
against pop star
Michael Jackson that
accused him of child
molestation -- a
case that has
resurfaced in
Jackson's current
criminal trial on
other child
molestation charges.
And he represented
Reginald Denny, the
white truck driver
beaten by a black
mob at the height of
the Los Angeles
riots in 1992.
Cochran argued that
the city's police
department was
guilty of
discrimination for
failing to protect
the neighborhood
where Denny was
assaulted.
In another
high-profile case,
Cochran represented
Abner Louima, the
Haitian immigrant
sodomized with a
broken broomstick by
two New York City
policemen.
And although his
1972 defense of
former Black Panther
Party member Elmer
"Geronimo" Pratt for
murder charges wound
up in defeat,
Cochran's
perseverance
eventually led to
the reversal of that
conviction -- and
his client's release
-- 25 years later.
The names went on
and on: rap singer
Sean "Puffy" Combs,
on trial for weapons
and bribery charges;
Rosa Parks, in the
lawsuit launched
against OutKast and
their label, LaFace
Records.
But it was the
Simpson trial that
defined him.
In his 2002 book, "A
Lawyer's Life,"
Cochran wrote that
the case "gave me
the platform to try
to change some of
those things that
need to be changed
in this country."
"It was the Simpson
case that put me
squarely in a
position to make a
difference. And that
was precisely the
reason I became an
attorney," he wrote.
Cochran's
flamboyancy inspired
parodies -- among
them the Jackie
Chiles character on
"Seinfeld," who
unsuccessfully
defended the show's
gang in the series
finale, and sketches
on "Saturday Night
Live."
"At times, it was a
lot of fun," Cochran
wrote of the
"Seinfeld" spoof.
"And I knew that
accepting it
good-naturedly, even
participating in it,
helped soothe some
of the angry
feelings from the
Simpson case."
CNN's Dree DeClamecy,
Stan Wilson and Eric
Philips contributed to
this story. |
