Famous (or infamous depending on your viewpoint) attorney Johnnie Cochran has died at the age of 67 of complications from a brain tumor. Cochran is of course best known for successfully defending OJ Simpson and helping him get away with murder.

Here's what OJ had to say about Cochran:

Yeah whatever Juice!

[ March 29, 2005, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: George_Twinsfan ]

Now OJ can hold a seance to see if Johnnie now knows who the real killer is.

The man who built the jury to set a killer free has died. Good riddance. Two of The Killer's attorneys have died with 18 months of one another (O.J. friend/attorney Robert Kardashian was the first)...anyone else noticing a pattern? The Juice is loose! The Juice is loose!

You can't fault the guy for being good at his job. He did what he was paid to do.

He was a clever lawyer and an engaging personality. For me, that's enough to wish him peace. Now, his clients on the other hand ...

If Chewbacca was a wookie, and lived on Endor, you must acquit! It just doesnt make sense!

It's rather sad that Cochran's entire legal career--one that included defending Lenny Bruce, representing Reginald Denny, as well as numerous indigent defendants over the years--is going to be defined by the spectacle that wsa the OJ Simpson case. He masterfully controlled those proceedings and was able to do exactly what a defense attorney is paid to do: poke holes in the prosecution's case and point up areas of reasonable doubt. The fact Lance Ito let Cochran control the trial or that so many on that particular jury were too stupid to follow the DNA evidence wasn't Cochran's fault--he merely found an opportunity & exploited it.

~Adam

Adam, I've got to agree with you on the Judge Ito issue. I watched that trial from beginning to end, and I wondered when Judge Ito was going to grow a spine. Cochran certainly was good at what he was suppose to do...get a killer (O.J.) off the hook. Besides O.J., he defended a lot of other clients that really needed the help he could give. I hope he rests peacefully.

I watched it everyday, too. I was in the eastern time zone so, the trial started each day a little after noon. I scheduled all of my college classes before 11 so I could grab lunch and head off to watch the trial from noon until the end of the day. I guess you could be looking directly into someone's eyes, hit the guy on the head with a 2x4 while he is videotaping you doing it, he would testify against you with video footage, and Johnnie Cochran would convince an ignorant jury that someone else had done it and they would acquit you because there was a smudge on one part of the video and therefore, it's not certain that you were in your body at the moment you struck the guy.

Wow, this was news to me.

Johnnie Cochran's name will always be connected to O.J.

I will never forget that big sweaty face of O.J.'s when the verdict was read. You can read what was going through his mind. "Wheeew, those 12 dopes bought it. Hehehehehe."

Coda to the Ito angle: he was up for reconfirmation on the LA Cty. bench shortly after the OJ trial and HE WAS RECONFIRMED! Sad, especially after his tearful demonstration of his inability to control his own emotions, let alone others', but more evidence that the voters get what they deserve!

From this article:

Maybe it's because I'm not a lawyer but if I really believed someone committed murder and I helped them stay out of jail, I don't know how I'd be able to sleep at night.

Finally, JIP and I agree, which is precisely why I've never - and could never - practice criminal defense.

As distasteful the job can seem to us, defense attorneys protect all of us from judicial tyranny. Checks and balances are a fundamental part of our Constitution that has served us well.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cochran.

Actually, I didn’t think Cochran was that spectacular in the Simpson trial. As a defense attorney, his job is to try to poke holes in the prosecution’s case, and create reasonable doubt. He attempted that and did succeed to a point. He was able to take control of the courtroom from Judge Ito, which means that Ito didn’t do his job. It was the prosecution that poked holes in their own case. There were say, 20 pieces of evidence, that by themselves, was sufficient proof of guilt. The prosecution failed to inform the jury that they could only conclude reasonable doubt if there were holes in ALL 20 pieces of evidence, instead of just a couple of them.

Also, didn’t Cochran defend Michael Jackson when they settled for a $10 million payoff?

Anyway, it seemed like Cochran also did some good work for others in need, and perhaps that’s what he should be remembered for. I was surprised by his death, and didn’t know he was ill.

[ March 31, 2005, 05:41 AM: Message edited by: pat125 ]

I remember reports of this comment. This was before Johnnie came on to The Killer's dream's team and The Killer had a different attorney at the time. This was even before Robert Shapiro was hired.

OJ is not free because of Cochran or Ito. He is free mostly because of some stupid legal moves by the prosection and the jury that proved the old adage that "Juries are comprised of 12 people too stupid to know how to get out of jury duty". It was jury nullification, plain and simple. COcharn didn't do anything that any other good defense attorney wouldn't have done.

[ March 31, 2005, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: George_Twinsfan ]

Very well said.

Yeah, I guess Johnnie's expression "Send the nation a message" had nothing to do with the verdict. The case never had anything to do with racism until Johnnie falsely introduced it and exploited it to the most extreme measures.

Are we going to re-try the case all over again? There's one discussion I don't need. Having said that, considering that you had a black man accussed of murdering his white ex-wife and another white man, I'd say that race was a factor in the trial from the beginning.

He didn't raise any issue that any other defense attorney worth his/her weight wouldn't have. I believe OJ is guilty as sin. But Cochran could have used all that stuff on 100 other juries and OJ probably would have been found guilty 95 times. He sure wouldn't have swayed me if I were on the jury. The prosecution f**ked this case up, not Cochran. Trying the glove on was a huge mistake. The prosection had a hand in picking this jury too. The defense just did a better job. Furman was a ticking bomb that Cochran was right to expose.

He was an advocate for his client and did what he was supposed to. Everyone here would want the same for them.

[ March 31, 2005, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: George_Twinsfan ]

Actually, Cochran PROSECUTED Lenny Bruce in the early 1960s, when he was on the LA City Attorney's staff. (In 1962 he became the first black law clerk in that organization.) I give him tons of credit for his long and successful career, including the O.J. defense; lawyers are SUPPOSED to win cases, not lose them. He also successfully defended a number of less known clients, including a 13-year-old Latina who was raped by an LAPD officer; won Abner Louima's trial against the NYPD, which brutally raped him in a bathroom; and successfully defended P.Diddy against gun charges. By any measure, he was an impressive attorney. RIP, Johnnie Cochran!

Being a habitual Simpson trial watcher, DNA proved everything. I understood the testimony and found it credible. I wonder if Johnnie's death puts an end to O.J.s lawyer debt to him?

I always wondered what happened to those 12 brilliant jurors. With one of the most bizarre verdicts ever in U.S. history, these 12 people have had every opportunity to showcase themselves around like celebrities; or at least explain themselves. Maybe they're all living in some small town in Alaska or something?

[ March 31, 2005, 10:01 AM: Message edited by: amazin12 ]

Some of them whored themselves around to the newsmagazine for a while and I think one or two wrote books. Otherwise, they slithered back under the rocks from which they came.

I am not afan of JC, but whenever someone passes away, it should not be viewed as a good thing... even you view a person an ass**** or jerk, think that someone loved that person, and that is sad.
JC did his job as a defense attorney... the prosectors were not able to prove that OJ is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
But most of you are right... it is going to be hard to separate JC from OJ, and since people disliked OJ, then JC is a victim of association.

You mean Jesus Christ?

Listen to this list of funeral attendees: OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, Sean Combs, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. That is quite a Rogue's Gallery. A double nurderer, a child molester, a gun possessor, a fraudulent reverand and adultering reverand.

Well, I have a problem with that, and with the praise for Cochran. All lawyers are members of the bar, and therefore have a duty to society and to justice that should outweigh their duty to any client. It is one thing to attempt to "poke holes" in a prosecution's arguments, it is quite another to argue, as the lawyers did in the OJ case, that a conspiracy to frame their client existed among myriad law enforcement officers and district attorneys. That goes well beyond defending your client.

Just as Al Sharpton has been roundly criticized (and rightly criticized) for trashing the reputation of a public figure in the Brawley "case," I think Cochran et al deserve some criticism for the slander they perpetuated on the innocent members of the Simpson/Goldman investigation team.

This is disgusting...
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