Jan 13, 2015 · LOS ANGELES – Famed attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. (search), who became a household name when he defended O.J. Simpson (search) against murder charges, died of a brain tumor on Tuesday at the age...
Mar 29, 2005 · Attorney Johnnie Cochran Dies March 29, 2005 / 6:11 PM / CBS/AP Johnnie L. Cochran, whose legal career representing both victims of police abuse and celebrities in peril converged under the media...
Mar 30, 2005 · March 30, 2005 -- Legendary attorney Johnnie Cochran died Tuesday at age 67 while suffering from an inoperable brain tumor.
Mar 30, 2005 · 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.
Apr 06, 2016 · Tragically, Cochran died on March 29, 2005, of a brain tumor, according to his New York Times obituary. Cochran was 67. He was survived by his wife, Sylvia Dale, and three children.
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.".
In 2002, Cochran told Combs that this would be his last criminal case. Cochran retired after the trial. R. Kelly and Allen Iverson later asked for his services in criminal cases, but he declined to represent them.
Cochran was born in 1937 in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father, Johnnie Cochran Sr. (1916–2018), was an insurance salesman, and his mother sold Avon products. The family relocated to the West Coast during the second wave of the Great Migration, settling in Los Angeles in 1949. Cochran went to local schools and graduated first in his class from Los Angeles High School in 1955. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1959 and a Juris Doctor from the Loyola Law School in 1962. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and the fraternity's 45th Laurel Wreath laureate.
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.
In 2007, the three-block stretch of the street in front of the school was renamed "Johnnie Cochran Vista". In 2007, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles opened the new Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Brain Tumor Center, a research center headed by noted neurosurgeon Keith Black, who had been Cochran's doctor.
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.
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.
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.
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.
O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Tragically, Cochran died on March 29, 2005, of a brain tumor, according to his New York Times obituary. Cochran was 67. He was survived by his wife, Sylvia Dale, ...
A funeral program is seen during the funeral services for lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. at the West Angeles Cathedral on April 6, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty)
But he developed an inoperable brain tumor shortly after and died in March 2005 at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Certainly, Johnnie’s career will be noted as one marked by ‘celebrity’ cases and clientele,” his family said in a statement after his death.
Johnnie Cochran established himself as a sought after attorney dealing with high-profile police brutality cases involving the African American community . He attracted famous clients like Michael Jackson and led O. J. Simpson 's defense team in the 1995 murder trial.
Cochran penned the books Journey to Justice (1996) and A Lawyer's Life (2002). He appeared on Court TV’s Inside America’s Courts and was also featured on a number of TV programs, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Chris Rock Show and The Roseanne Show as well as the Spike Lee film Bamboozled (2000). Cochran continued to take on new cases into the new millennium, ranging from work for clients like Abner Louima, who was tortured while in New York City police custody, and rapper/music mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs, to an anti-trust litigation issued against racing giant NASCAR.
The “trial of the century,” as it was dubbed, began in January 1995 and was among the most publicized in history, followed by millions around the world. Cochran, displaying his trademark style, came to lead the team, with some conflict rising among the attorneys amidst sensational proceedings.
Cochran thus made controversial closing statements in which he compared the detective’s philosophy to that of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Simpson was found not guilty in his murder trial, yet nonetheless faced civil litigation, with millions in damages awarded to the Brown and Goldman families.
In 1966, a Black motorist named Leonard Deadwyler, while attempting to get his pregnant wife to a hospital, was killed by police officer Jerold Bova. Cochran filed a civil suit on behalf of Deadwyler's family; though he lost, the attorney was nonetheless inspired to take on police abuse cases over the ensuing years. During the early 1980s, he oversaw a settlement for the family of African American football player Ron Settles, who died in a police cell under questionable circumstances. The following decade, Cochran won a huge, unprecedented court payment for a 13-year-old molested by an officer.
Over the years, Cochran's roster included famous entertainers like actor Todd Bridges, who was charged with attempted murder, and pop icon Michael Jackson, with Cochran arranging an out-of-court settlement for the singer in relation to child molestation charges.
Pratt was convicted and imprisoned, while Cochran maintained that the activist was railroaded by authorities, pushing for a retrial. (The conviction was eventually overturned after more than two decades. Pratt was released, with Cochran also overseeing a wrongful imprisonment suit.)
Cochrane was the grandson of John Cochran, Surgeon General of the Continental Army. He studied first at Union College, but then graduated from Hamilton College in 1831. While attending Union College, he became a member of the Sigma Phi Society.
In 1852, he campaigned for Franklin Pierce who appointed him Surveyor of the Port of New York in 1853. He was a Democratic member of the 35th and 36th United States Congresses, serving from 1857 to 1861, where he took a prominent part in the debates on land reform, revenue, and other public questions.
Cochrane, who was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, died at his home at 7 East Sixty-Second Street in Manhattan, and was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York .
Cochran died in 2005, so, by tradition of the craft, those comments are now fair game. "There's something wrong with him," Cochran said, and he talked about other clients he'd had who somehow managed to persuade themselves that they hadn't done what they actually had done.
Defense lawyers usually recoil from that question. They either go off the record and say, "Of course he did it, but that doesn' t matter, that's not my concern," or they issue some vague ritual denial all fluffed up with incantations about the sanctity of our legal system and every man's right to a vigorous defense.
Nowhere does Marc write that Cochran said he believed OJ committed the crime. As defense lawyers do, Cochran spoke around giving a direct answer by telling of clients he knew were guilty of "terrible deed [s]," yet denied their guilt.
Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr. was an American lawyer and civil activist best known for his leadership role in the defense and criminal acquittal of O. J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He often defended his client with rhymes like "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"
Cochran represented Sean Combs, Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Stanley Too…
Cochran was born in 1937 in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father, Johnnie Cochran Sr. (1916–2018), was an insurance salesman and his mother sold Avon products. The family relocated to the West Coast during the second wave of the Great Migration, settling in Los Angeles in 1949. Cochran went to local schools and graduated first in his class from Los Angeles High School in 1955. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics from the University of California, Los Ang…
Before the Simpson case, Cochran had achieved a reputation as a "go-to" lawyer for the rich, as well as a successful advocate for minorities in police brutality and civil rights cases. However, the controversial and dramatic Simpson trial made Cochran more widely known, generating a variety of opinions about him.
Cochran had often liked to say that he worked "not only for the OJs, but also the No Js". In other …
In December 2003, Cochran was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In April 2004, he underwent surgery, which led him to stay away from the media. Shortly thereafter, he told the New York Post that he was feeling well and was in good health.
He died from the brain tumor on March 29, 2005, at his home in Los Angeles. Public viewing of his casket was conducted on April 4, at the Angelus Funeral Home and April 5, at Second Baptist Ch…
On May 31, 2005, two months after Cochran's death, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its opinion on Tory v. 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 co…
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.
Actor Phil Morris played attorney Jackie Chiles, a character parody of Cochran, in several episodes of Seinfeld. He was satirized in the "Chef Aid" episode of the animated sitcom South Park, in whic…