The Life And Times Of Johnnie Cochran

[Guest rohale]

Johnnie Cochran, probably one of the most famous lawywers and barristers worldwide died at the age of 67. His best work or worst depending upon one's point of view was defending the infamous OJ Simpson in the deaths of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown in 1994/1995. Does anybody have any opinions or wish to share one's thoughts on the passing of one the most famous lawyers in the history of mankind.

 

Rohale

[JT Brooklyn]

He did what he did very well. He was also Paid very well.. I didn't care to much for the Schlocky TV Commercials advertising his wares.. He and "whatshisname" (O.J.) are linked forever...:+

[Guest zipperzone]

>He and "whatshisname" (O.J.) are linked forever...:+

 

One down - One to go.

[Guest ReturnOfS]

I don't know. Cochran's best work might have been when he represented the family of Ron Settles.

 

"Like the family of Ron Settles, the California State University-Long Beach footballstar, who, Signal Hill police contended, hanged himself in the city jail after he was arrested for speeding. After geting a court order for the exhumation of Settles' body, Cochran proved that he young Black man hadn't hanged himself after all. He had been strangled."

 

 

Or the little girls who were molested by their third grade teacher.

 

"Then there are the families of the 18 little Black girls who allegedly were being sexually molested by their third-grade teacher, a teacher, Cochran established, school officials knew was a pedophile before they assigned him to the school.

"Nobody did anything about it because these people were poor and minority," says Cochran, who, in 1990, negotiated the largest settlement in the history of the L.A. School District on behalf of the little girls. "Not only does the settlement ensure none of the girls will ever have to work, I made sure a major fund was established should any of them ever suffer psychological problems.""

 

 

Perhaps it was when he represented Reginald Denny, the white man who was severly beaten during the LA riots.

 

Then again maybe it was just the fact that his role model was Thurgood Marshall.

 

My point is that there was a lot more to the man and his 4 decade career than just the Simpson trial.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n6_v49/ai_14969864

[taylorky]

well said.

[Luv2play]

Unfortunately for Mr. Cochran, all the cases you cited (except maybe for the Denny case) were largely not conducted on the national or international stage as was the O.J. case. Thus a wider audience tended to judge him on that case alone, where justice was definitely not seen to be served. He himself recognized this and tended to laugh it off, after all, his job was to get his client off.

 

As one commentator put it the other day, he was a "fact" lawyer, not a "law" lawyer and his strength was in persuading juries of the facts of a case. I would guess that for most legal beagles, a lawyer who is a master of the intricacies of the law stands higher than one who performs best before a jury. It is the former who tend to become judges and rise to the top of their profession.

[Guest ReturnOfS]

One more thing as an interesting side note.

 

When preparing for his role as the lawyer in the movie, "Philadelphia", Denzel Washington "...wanted a real-life role model on whom he could base his portrayal". He wanted "...a master of litigation who was winning the big-time, big-bucks cases".

 

The lawyer he wanted was Johnnie Cochran.