CNN.

com - Famed attorney Johnnie Cochran dead

From Lenny Bruce, to Michael Jackson, to O.J. Simpson
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, probably very best known for
his effective defense of O.J. Simpson, died Tuesday afternoon soon after struggling from an
inoperable brain tumor, his family mentioned. He was 67.
"Johnnie Cochran was a loving, heartful human getting who cared about everyone," 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:thirty p.m. ET) at his property in Los Angeles. His household was
by his side and he had been in a hospice, Epps stated.
Cochran's family members and members of his law company issued a joint statement saying the
"planet has misplaced not only a legendary attorney, but an excellent humanitarian."
"Johnnie's job will be noted as one marked by celebrity situations and clientele. But he and his family
members have been most proud of the work he did on behalf of individuals in the community," the
statement said.
"As Johnnie often stated, 'An injustice anyplace is a threat to justice everywhere.' It was his rallying
cry as he worked to appropriate numerous wrongs, and as he offered a voice to those who essential
to be heard. He was deeply committed to assisting and inspiring others, specifically younger folks."
'If it doesn't fit, you should acquit'
Simpson advised CNN: "I loved him as a good Christian man. I search at Johnny as a fantastic
Christian. I knew him as that. He was a great guy."
Simpson mentioned he final noticed Cochran at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game a few months
ago and located the flamboyant attorney to be in excellent spirits. "We had been praying for him
then, and I even now am," Simpson said.
Simpson added that he knew Cochran lengthy just before he hired the African-American lawyer to
lead his "Dream Group" defense. "I was in social circles with Johnnie, and we knew each and every
other in that way," he said.
Cochran was the lead lawyer for Simpson, accused of murder in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson, and her acquaintance Ron Goldman.
During Simpson's 1995 trial, Cochran famously quipped, "If it doesn't match, you need to acquit," in
reminding jurors during his summation that the former star football working back could not match
his hands inside a bloody glove identified http://attorneydenvercolorado.net/ at the scene of the
killings.
The simple rhyme hammered property for jurors the defense argument that the proof towards
Simpson not only failed to fit the crime, but the defendant himself.

Cochran convinced the jury that race defined the Simpson situation and the police investigation
towards the onetime Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Southern California.
Simpson was acquitted in the criminal situation, but he was later on found liable in a civil trial and
buy to shell out the victims' families $33 million.

Comedian Lenny Bruce

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on October 2, 1937, the excellentgrandson of maryland dui classes a slave, and grew up in a prosperous loved ones.
He was raised in Los Angeles and attended UCLA, supporting himself by promoting insurance
coverage policies for his father's company. He graduated in 1959 and earned his law degree from
Loyola Marymount University in 1963.

He passed the California bar in 1963, then took a occupation in Los Angeles as a deputy city lawyer
in the criminal division.
His profession was intertwined with celebrities virtually from its beginning: Between his early
circumstances was a 1964 work to prosecute comedian Lenny Bruce on obscenity costs.
In 1965, he entered private practice and soon opened his own firm, Cochran, Atkins &amp Evans.
His present practice, The Cochran Company, was established in 1981 and has offices in 12 states
and the District of Columbia.
He produced his identify with a series of large-profile police brutality and criminal instances in the
late 1970s and worked as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney in the late 1970s and early
1980s.
He negotiated a 1993 settlement in a civil lawsuit towards pop star Michael Jackson that accused
him of child molestation -- a case that has resurfaced in Jackson's recent criminal trial on other child
molestation expenses.
And he represented Reginald Denny, the white truck driver beaten by a black mob at the height of
the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

Cochran argued that the city's police division was guilty of discrimination for failing to safeguard the
neighborhood the place Denny was assaulted.
In another substantial-profile case, Cochran represented Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant
sodomized with a broken broomstick by two New York City policemen.
And though his 1972 defense of former Black Panther Party member Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt for
murder fees wound up in defeat, Cochran's perseverance ultimately led to the reversal of that
conviction -- and his client's release -- 25 many years later.
The names went on and on: rap singer Sean "Puffy" Combs, on trial for weapons and bribery
expenses Rosa Parks, in the lawsuit launched against OutKast and their label, LaFace Information.
But it was the Simpson trial that defined him.
In his 2002 guide, "A Lawyer's Lifestyle," Cochran wrote that the case "gave me the platform to try
to adjust some of people items that need to be altered in this country."
"It was the Simpson case that put me squarely in a position to make a distinction. And that was
precisely the reason I became an lawyer," he wrote.
Cochran's flamboyancy inspired parodies -- among them the Jackie Chiles character on "Seinfeld,"
who unsuccessfully defended the show's gang in the series finale, and sketches on "Saturday Night
Reside."
"At times, it was a good deal of exciting," Cochran wrote of the "Seinfeld" spoof. "And I knew that
accepting it good-naturedly, even participating in it, aided soothe some of the angry feelings from
the Simpson situation."
CNN's Dree DeClamecy, Stan Wilson and Eric Philips contributed to this story.