Johnnie Cochran. (Getty) Johnnie Cochran, the lead attorney for OJ Simpson during his murder trial, is one of the main characters of FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
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.
His funeral was attended by Simpson, along with many other celebrities. 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. Cochran underwent brain surgery in April 2004, months before his death.
Johnnie Cochran, OJ Simpson’s lawyer, was able to win an acquittal for his client by making the mid-nineties trial about race, not a double murder. To do so, he manipulated the media, according to Christopher Darden, one of the prosecutors charged with trying Simpson.
March 29, 2005Johnnie Cochran / Date of death
67 years (1937–2005)Johnnie Cochran / Age at death
In 2004, Cochran's associates revealed that he was suffering from an undisclosed illness. He died from a brain tumor on March 29, 2005, at the age of 67.
Johnnie Cochran defended Michael Jackson against allegations of child molestation in 1993 and 1994 — allegations that Jackson denied.
June 16, 1994Nicole Brown Simpson / Date of burial
Johnnie Cochran, the lead defense attorney of the so-called “Dream Team,” earned up to $5 million from helping to win Simpson's acquittal on double murder charges and went on to defend other high-profile defendants until he died of a brain tumor in 2005.
He personally supervised the removal of photos that show Simpson and his white friends, and the redecoration of the home with African art and photos of the former pro footballer with other African-Americans.
Johnnie Cochran net worth: Johnnie Cochran was an American retired lawyer who had a net worth of $8 million dollars at the time of his death....Johnnie Cochran Net Worth.Net Worth:$8 MillionGender:MaleProfession:Lawyer, ActorNationality:United States of America1 more row
Simpson, Patty Hearst and a host of other famous and infamous clients in a tumultuous career punctuated by his own collisions with the law and his eventual disbarment, died June 3 at a hospice center in the Atlanta area. He was 87. His son Bendrix Bailey confirmed the death but did not cite a specific cause.
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....Robert KardashianFamilyKardashian11 more rows
Twenty-five years ago today, in his closing argument at the sensational O.J. Simpson double-murder trial in Los Angeles, lead defense lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran stood before the jurors and urged them to keep this in mind: “If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.”
As it turns out, Simpson was allowed to keep generating memorabilia during his trial, which allowed to afford the "Dream Team" of lawyers — which the doc notes cost him an estimated $50,000 a day.
The murders were incredibly violent, bloody, and swift. Whoever killed 35-year-old Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, 25, seemed to go right for the kill, savaging Brown Simpson (and later, Goldman, who had the misfortune of arriving during the attack) in front of her Brentwood, California condominium on June 12, 1994, while her two children slept inside, according to the Los ...
Family members of the 'dream team' lawyer are among those criticizing changes in personnel and direction since attorney's 2005 death.
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. was born on October 2, 1937, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Hattie and Johnnie L. Cochran Sr. The family moved to California in 1943, where the younger Cochran eventually excelled as a student in what was becoming a more racially integrated environment. In 1959, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and later attended Loyola Marymount University Law School, graduating in 1962. Upon passing the bar, Cochran worked as a deputy criminal prosecutor in Los Angeles. By mid-decade, he’d entered private practice with Gerald Lenoir and soon launched a firm of his own, Cochran, Atkins & Evans.
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.
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.
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.)
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 of 67.
Reacting to news of Cochran's death Tuesday, Jackson had kind words for the lawyer he considered "a great humanitarian.". "Johnnie Cochran was a true gentleman who embodied class, brilliance, honesty and integrity," Jackson said in a statement. "His fight for justice transcended color, age or economic status. ... I loved him, and I will miss him.
After returning to private practice, Cochran built his firm into a personal injury giant with more than 100 lawyers and offices around the country. Flamboyant in public, he kept his private life shrouded in secrecy, and when some of those secrets became public following a 1978 divorce, they were startling.
When Cochran helped Pratt win his freedom in 1997 he called the moment "the happiest day of my life practicing law.". He won a $760,000 award in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ron Settles, a black college football star who died in police custody in 1981.
As a youth, Cochran idolize Thurgood Marshall, the attorney who persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw school segregation in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision and who would eventually become the Supreme Court's first black justice.
His first marriage, to his college sweetheart, Barbara Berry, produced two daughters, Melodie and Tiffany. During their divorce, it came to light that for 10 years Cochran had secretly maintained a "second family," which included a son.
During arguments last Tuesday, justices seemed skeptical of Cochran's attorney's claim that the injunction did not violate the First Amendment. Born in Shreveport, La., the great-grandson of slaves, grandson of a sharecropper and son of an insurance salesman, Cochran came to Los Angeles with his family in 1949.
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, ...
Cochran was 67. He was survived by his wife, Sylvia Dale, and three children. His funeral was attended by Simpson, along with many other celebrities. 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 is an American criminal trial lawyer and a civil activist. He gained international popularity with his controversial defense of several high-profile personalities.
Johnnie Cochran was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Johnnie Cochran Sr and Hattie Bass Cochran. His dad was an insurance salesman whereas, his mother sold Avon’s products.
Johnnie Cochran was born on October 2nd, 1937, in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Johnnie Cochran married Barbara Berry Cochran in 1960. Barbara was a primary school teacher.
Cochran has three children. He has two children with Barbara named Tiffany and Melodie. Johnnie has a son named Jonathan with his former girlfriend, Patty.
Thurgood Marshall positively influenced Johnnie Cochran. He admired the legal victory he won in the ‘Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka’s case’ (1954).
Johnnie’s road to legal practice was a tough one. He studied, practiced, and also faced some setbacks as a lawyer.
Johnnie Cochran, OJ Simpson’s lawyer, was able to win an acquittal for his client by making the mid-nineties trial about race, not a double murder. To do so, he manipulated the media, according to Christopher Darden, one of the prosecutors charged with trying Simpson. “Cochran used the media to change the conversation as effectively as Donald Trump ...
Darden dropped a few other intriguing tidbits in is AMA: The eight-month Simpson trial took a physical toll on him: He said he lost 2o lbs, two teeth and had four root canal surgeries before it was over. He thought Cochran’s famous line—”if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit”— was “a kids rhyme for idiots.”.
Darden , who has maintained a low profile since the trial, didn’t elaborate on his Reddit comment, but he suggests that Cochran, through flamboyant statements and acts, was able to captivate the media , which in turn helped sway the jury.
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.
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.
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.".