OJ's lawyer dies
2005-03-30 10:46
Los Angeles - Johnnie L Cochran Jr, who became a legal superstar after helping clear OJ Simpson during a sensational murder trial in which he uttered the famous quote "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," died. He was 67.
Cochran died on Tuesday of an inoperable brain tumor at his home in Los Angeles, his family said. Cochran, who was diagnosed with the tumor in December 2003, was surrounded by his wife, Dale, and two sisters when he died.
"Certainly, Johnnie's career will be noted as one marked by 'celebrity' cases and clientele," his family said in a statement. "But he and his family were most proud of the work he did on behalf of those in the community."
With his colourful suits and ties, his gift for courtroom oratory and a knack for coining memorable phrases, Cochran was a vivid addition to the pantheon of America's best-known lawyers.
Sensational private life
The "if it doesn't fit" phrase would be quoted and parodied for years afterward. It derived from a dramatic moment during which Simpson tried on a pair of bloodstained "murder gloves" to show jurors they did not fit. Some legal experts called it the turning point in the trial.
Soon after, jurors found the Hall of Fame football star turned actor not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
"Johnnie is what's good about the law," Simpson said in a telephone interview from Florida. "I don't think I'd be home today without Johnnie."
For Cochran, Simpson's acquittal was the crowning achievement in a career notable for victories, often in cases with racial themes. He was a black man known for championing the causes of black defendants. Some of them, like Simpson, were famous, but more often than not they were unknowns.
"The clients I've cared about the most are the No Js, the ones who nobody knows," said Cochran, who proudly displayed copies in his office of the multimillion-dollar checks he won for ordinary citizens who said they were abused by police.
By the time Simpson called, the byword in the black community for defendants facing serious charges was: "Get Johnnie."
Cochran was not universally praised for his work on the Simpson case.
Simpson was held liable for the killings following a 1997 civil trial and ordered to pay the Brown and Goldman families $33.5m in restitution. Cochran did not represent him in that case.
After Simpson's acquittal, Cochran appeared on countless TV talk shows, was awarded his own Court TV show, travelled the world over giving speeches, and was endlessly parodied in films and on such TV shows as Seinfeld and South Park. Cochran also wrote in an autobiography, A Lawyer's Life.
Flamboyant in public, he kept his private life shrouded in secrecy. During his divorce from his first wife, it came to light that for 10 years Cochran had secretly maintained a "second family," which included a son.
- AP