Jan 21, 2016 · In 1978, Cochran once again became part of the city’s legal force when he joined the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, although he eventually returned to …
Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. 1937 - 2005 Hezekiah Sistrunk, Jr. President & National Partner Hezekiah Sistrunk, Jr., is a National Partner and President of The Cochran Firm, Chairman of the National Firm’s Executive/Management Committee and the Managing Partner of the Firm’s Atlanta Office. LEARN MORE Nationwide Availability
Apr 13, 2021 · According to Britannica, by the early 2000s, Cochran oversaw 10 law firms across the country; was the chairperson of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, an agency that sought economic growth in Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood; and was still representing some of the most famous Black celebrities in the world.
Jan 13, 2015 · Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr., who famously defended football star O.J. Simpson, has died at 67 in his home in Los Angeles, a law firm partner confirmed. Fox News U.S.
Attorney Johnnie Cochran became a recipient of the Criminal Trial Lawyer of the year in LA criminal courts Bar Association in 1977. He did his undergraduate at UCLA and earned his law degree at Loyola Marymount University School of Law in Los Angeles. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
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.Jul 23, 2017
Sean Combs He hired Cochran for his defense. Cochran effectively fought for Combs' freedom, and Combs was acquitted. In 2002, Cochran told Combs that this would be his last criminal case. Cochran retired after the trial.
March 29, 2005Johnnie Cochran / Date of death
$450,000How Much Did Oj Pay Robert Shapiro? Shapiro settled his claim for $450,000. That's nearly twice what he claims he was paid to represent the client initially.Apr 5, 2022
After the trial, Cochran continued to practice law and appear as a TV commentator. He died of brain cancer in 2005 at age 68.Oct 3, 2020
The very same office that Johnnie Cochran opened in 1981 to continue the career he started in 1963 is the very same office his protégé', Managing Attorney Brian Dunn, works to continue the legacy Mr.
In a jury trial, a Chewbacca defense is a legal strategy in which a criminal defense lawyer tries to confuse the jury rather than refute the case of the prosecutor. It is an intentional distraction or obfuscation. As a Chewbacca defense distracts and misleads, it is an example of a red herring.
Famous Lawyers You Should KnowRobert Shapiro. Robert Shapiro is one of the best-known lawyers in American history. ... Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall was one of the most famous lawyers in American history. ... Woodrow Wilson. ... Johnnie Cochran. ... William Howard Taft. ... Andrew Jackson. ... Abraham Lincoln. ... Robert Kardashian.More items...
According to The Los Angeles Times, Cochran had a relationship with Patricia Sikora while he and Berry were still married. Sikora and Cochran had a child together, Jonathon, who was working as a California Highway Patrol officer as of 2005.Mar 15, 2016
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. Here's how he did it. The entire "O.J.: Made In America" documentary is available on the Watch ESPN app and iTunes.Jun 19, 2016
The O.J. Simpson double murder trial cost the taxpayers of cash-strapped Los Angeles County more than $9-million, the auditor-controller's office said in a report released Friday.Dec 2, 1995
In 1994, Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. He was acquitted by a jury after a lengthy and internationally publicized trial. The families of the victims subsequently filed a civil suit against him.
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.
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.
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.
Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr. ( / ˈkɒkrən /; October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) 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.
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.".
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.
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.
After passing the California bar exam in 1963, Cochran took a position in Los Angeles as a deputy city attorney in the criminal division. In 1964, the young Cochran prosecuted one of his first celebrity cases, Lenny Bruce, a comedian who had recently been arrested on obscenity charges. Two years later, Cochran entered private practice. Soon thereafter, he opened his own firm, Cochran, Atkins & Evans, in Los Angeles.
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 successfully represented Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant living in Brooklyn who was sodomized with a broken broomstick by officer Justin Volpe while in police custody. Louima was awarded an $8.75 million settlement, the largest police brutality settlement in New York City. Tension broke out between Louima's original lawyers and the new team headed by Cochran. The former team felt that Cochran and his colleagues were trying to take control of the entire trial.
Hezekiah Sistrunk, Jr., is a National Partner and President of The Cochran Firm, Chairman of the National Firm’s Executive/Management Committee and the Managing Partner of the Firm’s Atlanta Office.
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He would continue his education at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he would receive his Juris Doctor in 1963.
Johnnie Cochran's early life. Long before the "Trial of the Century" and parodies on network television, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on October 2, 1937, to Johnnie L. Cochran Sr. and his wife Hattie.
This in part came from some disturbing accusations leveled against him by his first wife and an affair during their marriage.
Simpson trial would be the highlight of Johnnie Cochran's career: He'd successfully acquitted one of his most well-known clients and put the entire Los Angeles Police Department on trial for their history of brutality and racial abuse. However, according to The Washington Post, overturning the conviction of Geronimo Pratt is what Cochran said was "the happiest day" of his legal practice.
In 1965, the Watts race riots broke out. According to Britannica, 34 people died and over 1,000 individuals were injured during the six-day riot. That same year, believing that African Americans were being abused in the criminal justice system, Cochran left the city's office.
Not since Clarence Darrow at the turn of the 20th century has there been a lawyer as well-known in the public eye. And like his counterpart, Cochran was known for representing poor and working-class citizens against what he felt was an oppressive and racist system within the government.
According to The Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame, Johnnie Cochran became the first African American assistant district attorney in Los Angeles when he was hired to the position in 1978. He said that joining the government was the best way to become one of the "good guys" that can fight for justice within the justice system.
Cochran represented former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. When Cochran helped Pratt win his freedom in 1997 he called the moment "the happiest day of my life practicing law.".
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.
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.
Those words, referring to the moment when Simpson tried on a pair of bloodied gloves to show they did not fit, appeared to resonate.
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…