Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. ( ; October 2, 1937 - March 29, 2005) was an American lawyer well-known for his leadership role in O.J. criminal defense and exemption. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and his friend, Ron Goldman.
Cochran represented Sean Combs during the trial on charges of pistols and bribery, as well as Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Todd Bridges, Jim Brown soccer player Snoop Dogg, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, 1992 Los Angeles riot hitting Reginald Oliver Denny victims, and inmates and activist Geronimo Pratt. He represented athlete Marion Jones when he faced doping during his career in high school. Cochran is known for his expertise in the courtroom and his superiority as an early advocate for victims of police brutality.
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Cochran was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father is an insurance salesman, and his mother sells Avon products. The family moved 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 in business economics from University of California, Los Angeles in 1959 and Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School in 1962. He is a member and 45 "Laurel Wreath Wearer" from Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
Maps Johnnie Cochran
Legal practice
Inspired by Thurgood Marshall and Thurgood's legal victory at Brown v. Board of Education , Cochran decided to dedicate his life to practicing law. Cochran felt his career was a call, a double chance to work for what he thought was right and to challenge what he thought was wrong; he can make a difference by practicing the law. In A Lawyer's Life , Cochran writes, "I read everything I could about Thurgood Marshall and affirmed that a single dedicated man can use the law to change society".
Despite his decline as a lawyer, Cochran vowed not to stop what he was doing, saying: "I made this commitment and I have to fulfill it."
Initial career
After passing the bar in 1963, Cochran took a job in Los Angeles as deputy city prosecutor in the criminal division. In 1964, the young Cochran received one of his first celebrity cases, Lenny Bruce, a comedian who was recently arrested on charges of obscenity. Two years later, Cochran entered a private practice. Soon after, he opened his own company, Cochran, Atkins & amp; Evans, in Los Angeles.
In his first case, Cochran represented an African-American widow suing several police officers who shot and killed her husband, Leonard Deadwyler. Although Cochran lost the case, it became a turning point in his career. Instead of seeing the case as a defeat, Cochran realized the trial itself had woken up the black community. In connection with the loss, Cochran wrote in The American Lawyer that was a very difficult case to win at the time But what Deadwyler confirmed for me was that this police misuse problem really galvanized a minority community It teaches me that these cases can really attract attention. "
By the late 1970s, Cochran had built his reputation in the black community. He is filing a number of police brutality and a famous criminal case.
Los Angeles County District Prosecutor Office
In 1978, Cochran returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office as his first black assistant district attorney. Although he took a pay cut to do so, joining the government was his way of being "one of the good guys, one of the top steps." He began to strengthen his relationship with the political community, change his image, and work from within to change the system.
Back to private practice
Five years later, Cochran returned to private practice, transforming himself as "the best in the West" by opening the law firm of Johnnie L Cochran Jr. In contrast to the initial loss in the Deadwyler case, Cochran won $ 760,000 for Ron Settles' family, a black college football player who, claimed by his family, was killed by police. In 1990, Cochran joined a successful company, Cochran, Mitchell & amp; Jenna, and joined Cochran, Cherry, Givens & amp; Smith in 1997. The Cochran Company has grown to have a regional office located in fifteen states.
In most of its cases, Cochran represented the plaintiffs in the action of the lawsuit, and he opposed the reform of the lawsuit. Because of his success as a lawyer, Cochran can push the settlement only with his presence in a case. According to Reverend Jesse Jackson, a call to Johnnie Cochran made "the company and the offenders shake."
Cochran's well-honed rhetoric and flamboyance in the courtroom have been described as theatrical. His practice as a lawyer made him rich. With his income, he bought and drove cars like Jaguar and Rolls-Royce. He owns a house in Los Angeles, two apartments in West Hollywood, and a condominium in Manhattan. In 2001, the Cochran accountant estimated that within five years, the attorney would be worth $ 25-50 million .
Client
Even before Simpson's case, Cochran has achieved a reputation as a go-to lawyer for the rich, as well as a successful advocate for minorities in cases of police brutality and civil rights. However, the controversial and dramatic trial of Simpson made Cochran more widely known, producing various opinions about him.
Cochran often likes to say that he works "not just for OJ, but also No Js". In other words, he enjoys defending or prosecuting on behalf of those who have no fame or wealth. Cochran's most glorious moment as a lawyer, he believed, was when he won the freedom of Geronimo Pratt. Cochran said he regarded Pratt's release as "the happiest day" of his legal practice. In the words of Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, Cochran "is willing to fight for the superior." Pastor Jesse Jackson believes Cochran is a "people's lawyer." Magic Johnson proclaims Cochran is known "... to represent O. J. and Michael, but he is bigger and better than that".
O. J. Simpson
During the closing debates at Simpson's trial, Cochran uttered the now well-known phrase, "If it does not fit, you have to set it free." He used the phrase, which had been designed by members of the defense team Gerald Uelmen, as a way to try to persuade the jury that Simpson could not have killed Nicole Brown Simpson or Ron Goldman. In a dramatic scene, Simpson seems to have trouble getting the gloves; colored with blood from both victims and Simpson, it has been found at the scene.
Cochran did not represent Simpson in the next civil trial for the same murder, and Simpson was found to be responsible for the death. Cochran was criticized during criminal trials by experts, as well as by prosecutor Christopher Darden, for suggesting that the police were trying to trap Simpson because they were racist. Cochran told the black-majority jury that the police officers were trying to trap Simpson because of his race.
Robert Shapiro, defense counsel at Simpson's defense team, accused Cochran of handling the "race card" "from the bottom of the deck." In response, Cochran replied that "it is not a case of race, it is a case of reasonable doubt...", noting "there are many white people willing to accept this verdict."
On September 8, 2012, Darden claimed that Cochran had belatedly damaged the gloves at Simpson's trial center.
Abner Louima
Cochran was able to represent Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant in New York City who was sodomized with a broken broom while in police custody. Louima was awarded the $ 8.75 million settlement, the biggest police brutality in New York City. Tension broke out between Louima's original lawyer and a new team led by Cochran. The former team feels that Cochran and his colleagues are trying to control the entire trial.
Sean Combs
In 2001, Sean (P. Diddy) Combs was charged with allegations of bribery and theft of weapons. He hired Cochran for his defense. Cochran effectively fought for Freedom Combs, and Combs was released.
In 2002, Cochran told Combs that this would be his last criminal case. After the experiment, Cochran retired. He then refused to represent R. Kelly and Allen Iverson in a criminal case, who had requested his services.
Disease and death
In December 2003, Cochran was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In April 2004, he underwent surgery, which caused him to move away from the media. Soon, he told the New York Post that he was feeling well, and that he was in good health.
On March 29, 2005, he died at his home in Los Angeles, from a brain tumor. The general appearance of his coffin was performed on April 4, at Angelus's Cemetery and 5 April, at the Second Baptist Church, in Los Angeles. A funeral ceremony was held at Lord West Los Angeles Church in Christ, in Los Angeles, on April 6, 2005. His body was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. The funeral was attended by many former clients and friends, including O.J. Simpson.
Decision posthumous
On May 31, 2005, two months after Cochran's death, the US Supreme Court expressed his opinion on Tory v. Cochran . The court ruled 7-2 that in light of Cochran's death, an order restricting the Ulysses Tory demonstration "amounted to too much restraint when speaking." Two Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said that Cochran's death made the court unnecessary. The lower court, before Cochran died, declared that Tory could not make public comments about Cochran in any way.
Legacy
- On January 24, 2006, Los Angeles Unified School District officials unanimously approved the renaming of Mount Vernon Secondary School, Cochran Vocational High School, to Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Middle School in his honor. The decision received mixed responses.
- In 2007, three road blocks in front of the school were named "Johnnie Cochran Vista".
- In 2007, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles opened the Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Brain Tumor Center. a new research center led by renowned neurosurgeon Keith Black, who was once a Cochran doctor.
- The Cochran family made the conferred seat, Chairman Johnnie L Cochran Jr. in Civil Rights, at his alma mater, Loyola Law School of Loyola Marymount University.
In popular culture
Before the national fame of Cochran in O.J. Simpson's experiment, the actor Denzel Washington interviewed Cochran as part of his research for the film Philadelphia (1993).
After Simpson's trial, Cochran often became a commentator on legal television shows. In addition, he hosted his own show, Johnnie Cochran Tonight , at CourtTV. With the fame Simpson also came the movie deal.
Actor Phil Morris plays lawyer Jackie Chiles, Cochran's parody character, in several episodes of Seinfeld .
Cochran was tortured in the animated sitcom South Park, where he appeared using a confusing legal strategy called "Chewbacca defense", a direct parody of his closing arguments when defending O.J. Simpson.
Cochran takes this parody quietly, discussing it in his autobiography,
Ving Rhames plays Cochran in the miniseries of American Tragedy (2000).
Cochran is mentioned in the 2011 musical comedy Book of Mormon , in which he is depicted in hell for "obtaining O. J. free".
Cochran was also mentioned in Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" album on their 2002 album The Young and the Hopeless, showing that one can escape crime as long as they have the cash to pay Cochran, ridicule to the OJ Case Simpson.
In Lethal Weapon 4, when the character of Chris Rock, a police officer, arrested a maid, she shouted, "You have the right to a lawyer! If you can not afford a lawyer, we will provide you with the fucking damn lawyer on Earth! But if you get Johnnie Cochran, I'll kill you! "
Courtney B. Vance won the Emmy Primetime Award for Outstanding Actor in a Movie or Limited Series to play Cochran at The People v. OJ Simpson (2016), the first season of true FX honesty anthology television series, American Crime Story.
Juicy J mentioned Cochran in the song "Call My Lawyer" from his 2017 Highly Intoxicated mixtape, most likely referring to Cochran's success with the high profile client he represents.
Johnnie Cochran was mentioned by Big Pussy and Paulie in the Soprano # 46 TV series, in 1999 while putting a gun in the victim's mouth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRlOPzQ1CVQ
Rapper Chamillionaire, in his song The Evening News (2007), refers to either Cochran or Robert Kardashian's death on the line: "OJ was named innocent/He was not punished, he is alive/It's very ironic that the lawyer defend him to die ".
References
External links
- The Cochran Company website
- The California Cochran Firm website
- The Washington, D.C. website Cochran Office
- Johnny Cochran Death
- Johnnie Cochran in the Search of the Mausoleum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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