While some key members of the trial—including Simpson's prone-to-theatrics "Dream Team" defense attorney Johnnie Cochran and fellow lawyer/Simpson family friend Robert Kardashian —have since passed away, others have spent the last 20 years rehashing the events of the trial of the century.
Who were OJ attorneys?
Who were OJ Simpson's lawyers?
Pleading not guilty to the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, which occurred on June 12, 1994, Simpson hired a "dream team" defense, which included lead attorney Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran (who later took over as lead counsel), F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck, Robert Kardashian and Alan Dershowitz.
The attorneys representing O.J. Simpson included F. Lee Bailey, Robert Blasier, Shawn Chapman Holley, Robert Shapiro, and Alan Dershowitz. Johnnie Cochran later became the defense team's lead attorney. The attorneys were known as the “Dream Team."
3. This is where some of the key figures of the OJ trial are now. Oct 2, 2020 — The incredibly expensive and much-hyped team of lawyers that defended Simpson included Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, Barry (7)… On of the most vocal defense attorneys on Simpson's team was Johnnie Cochran.
Robert George Kardashian (February 22, 1944 – September 30, 2003) was an American attorney and businessman. He gained recognition as O. J. Simpson's friend and defense attorney during Simpson's 1995 murder trial.
Simpson trial. …as the “Dream Team,” included F. Lee Bailey, Robert Blasier, Shawn Chapman Holley, Robert Shapiro, and Alan Dershowitz; Johnnie Cochran later became the defense team's lead attorney.
Douglas was widely considered one of Johnnie Cochran's top lawyers. He later became the managing attorney of the Law Office of Johnnie Cochran, Jr. before leaving the firm in 1998, to form The Douglas Law Group (now known as Douglas / Hicks Law).
Barry Scheck, a law professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, is a forensic expert. Scheck is also known for his work as co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization that uses DNA evidence to clear the names of wrongfully convicted inmates.
Peter Neufeld joined the Simpson defense team to assist with undermining the prosecution's DNA and forensic evidence. He is perhaps best known for discrediting the credibility of the blood trail between Nicole Brown Simpson 's body and O.J. Simpson 's car.
During the cross-examination, Bailey was able to get Fuhrman to plead the Fifth in response to key aspects of the case, including planting evidence, thereby undermining Fuhrman's credibility as a witness. This cross-examination is believed by many to be one of the keys to Simpson's acquittal.
In 2006, he was appointed Executive Director for the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, created by the California State Senate to examine the causes of wrongful convictions and propose reforms of the California criminal justice system.
Gerald Uelmen was part of O.J. Simpson's defense team during the O.J. Simpson murder case. Uelmen says he devised the memorable line used by Johnnie Cochran in the closing argument, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Uelmen is currently a professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law, where he served as Dean from 1986 to 1994. He served as defense counsel in the trials of Daniel Ellsberg and Christian Brando. In 2006, he was appointed Executive Director for the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, created by the California State Senate to examine the causes of wrongful convictions and propose reforms of the California criminal justice system.
Alan Dershowitz. Alan Dershowitz was the Felix Frankfurter professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and as of 2013. [update] remained one of the most successful lawyers and legal scholars in the country. After representing Simpson, he has represented Julian Assange, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.
Robert Kardashian started out as a lawyer in the late 1960s. He soon became involved in a number of business ventures, including some with his friend, football legend and celebrity O.J. Simpson in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1994, Kardashian came to Simpson’s aid after the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
Born on February 22, 1944, Robert Kardashian was the son of Armenian-American parents who had a successful meat-packing company. Kardashian grew up in Los Angeles where he attended Dorsey High School. He then earned a degree in business administration from the University of Southern California in 1966.
Kardashian proved to be a loyal friend to Simpson in 1994 in the wake of the murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman. He was by Simpson’s side in the days after these killings took place, letting him stay in his home.
Simpson was captured after a televised police chase and eventually brought to trial in 1995 for the two murders. Kardashian, then a full-time businessman, got his legal credentials reinstated to become a member of Simpson’s “Dream Team” of lawyers, which also included Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey.
The close bond between Kardashian and Simpson eventually frayed. In 1996, Kardashian told ABC News that he had doubts over Simpson’s innocence. He said that “The blood evidence is the biggest thorn in my side; that causes me the greatest problems.
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But though the so-called “trial of the century” focused on Simpson as the lone suspect, Shapiro said prosecutors should have cast their net wider. “The prosecution wedded themselves to one knife, one killer theory,” the attorney said. “There is a strong possibility that more than one person was involved.”. ...
Shapiro said he instructed Simpson to march up to the jury, “hold up your hand like you’re holding the Olympic torch and pull and tug on that glove, because it will not fit.”. He added: “And clearly it didn’t.”. Kelly asked Shapiro whether he truly believed Simpson was innocent.
Kardashian was born in Los Angeles, California, on February 22, 1944, one of three children born to Arthur Kardashian (1917–2012) and Helen Jean Arakelian Kardashian (1917–2008), both Armenian Americans. He had a sister, Barbara Kardashian Freeman, and a brother, Thomas "Tom" Kardashian.
Kardashian and Simpson first met around 1967 while both of them were at USC and became close friends. Simpson was the best man at Robert Kardashian and Kris Houghton 's wedding in 1978. Robert was the water boy for the USC Trojans football team which would be ranked #1 in the nation in the AP Poll.
Kardashian was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in July 2003. He died two months later, on September 30, 2003, at his home in Encino, Los Angeles, at age 59, and was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Kardashian was portrayed by David Schwimmer in the 2016 FX miniseries American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson. Schwimmer was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance, but lost to Sterling K. Brown, who portrayed Christopher Darden in the same series.
Kardashian had four children with his first wife, Kris Kardashian ( née Houghton, later Jenner): Kourtney, Kimberly, Khloé, and Rob.
O.J. Simpson is surrounded by his Dream Team defense attorneys from left, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Peter Neufeld, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian, and Robert Blasier, seated at left, at the close of defense arguments Thursday, Sept. 28, 1995.
Defense attorney Alan Dershowitz (L) confers with defendant OJ Simpson,as lead attorney Robert Shapiro listens, during a pretrial hearing on evidence suppression in the Simpson murder case.
Two years later, Cochran entered private practice. Soon thereafter, he opened his own firm, Cochran, Atkins & Evans, in Los Angeles. In his first notable case, Cochran represented an African-American widow who sued several police officers who had shot and killed her husband, Leonard Deadwyler.
After the Simpson trial, Cochran was a frequent commentator in law-related television shows. Additionally, he hosted his own show, Johnnie Cochran Tonight, on CourtTV. With the Simpson fame also came movie deals.
During closing arguments in the Simpson trial, Cochran uttered the now famous phrase, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." He used the phrase, which had been devised by fellow defense team member Gerald Uelmen, as a way to try to persuade the jury that Simpson could not have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson nor Ron Goldman. In a dramatic scene, Simpson appeared to have difficulty getting the glove on; stained with blood of both victims and Simpson, it had been found at the crime scene.
In 1964, the young Cochran prosecuted one of his first celebrity cases, Lenny Bruce, a comedian who had recently been arrested on obscenity charges.
Cochran. The court ruled 7–2 that in light of Cochran's death, an injunction limiting the demonstrations of Ulysses Tory "amounts to an overly broad prior restraint upon speech." Two justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said that Cochran's death made it unnecessary for the court to rule. Lower courts, before Cochran died, held that Tory could not make any public comments about Cochran.
Stanley Tookie Williams. Johnnie Cochran defended 17-year old Stanley Tookie Williams in a robbery trial in the early 1970s. Williams at the time was a known member of the Westside Crips street gang. After less than 10 minutes on trial, Williams was acquitted of all charges.
In 1978 , Cochran returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office in the leadership position of First Assistant District Attorney. Though he took a pay cut to do so, joining the government was his way of becoming "one of the good guys, one of the very top rung.".