My main man who sticks it to The Man has passed away, apparently from an inoperable brain tumor... but whatever the case maybe Johnnie Cochran moved on to whatever the Lord has in store for him.
A couple years ago I reach Cochran's memoir A Lawyer's Life, and it was utterly fascinating. He is a nationally (actually internationally) known figure mainly because of the Orenthal James Simpson Double Mruder Trial, a media-frenzied trial that caused widespread outrage among white Americans after Mr Simpson walked free.
Cochran was accused of playing the "race card" to a largely black jury after suggesting that police had planted evidence in an attempt to frame Mr Simpson because he was a black superstar. Is this true? Well, the one thing we DO know about America is that is has never solved its race problem, particuarly its Nigga Problem.
In his memoir, Cochran steadfastly claimed it was an insult to all African-Americans to think he could convince black jurors to acquit a man they believed to be guilty of two murders just because he was black -- and that the victims were white. It's kind of funny whenever African-Americans are in court in the country, because the whole system is acutely foreign to African-American sensibilities and culture; and niggas typically GO OUT FUCKING BAD when in front of a judge. However, Cochran was one of the few African-Americans who knew how to work the System to a T (I can't remember was his win percentage was, but I believe it was over 80%).
In the wake of the trial, Cochran frequently appeared on television chat shows, got his own court TV series and was parodied in films and hugely popular television shows such as Seinfeld and South Park.
But he also handled some MAJOR, MAJOR cases - particularly winning the largest police brutality lawsuit in the history of nigga-hating NYC. He also cleared Sean "Puffy Daddy" Combs from trumped up gun charges where a white district attorney was looking to "make a name for himself" at the expense of true justice; and that myopia bit that DA in the ass. It was under Cochran's counsel that Combs was advised to tone done his high profile image; thus Puffy Daddy became P.Diddy. Cochran had stated after OJ he didn't want to ever handle a criminal case again (opting to take on cases thta affected broad civil rights issues insteadd), yet Cochran knew that the NYC DA was out to broomstick another high-profile Black man, 'cause that's how this country behaves.
Cochran was no saint though -- an he wasn't expected to be, as he was secretive about his private life [who wouldn't be in cannibalistic media-mad culture that we live in?), but startling details were exposed to the public gaze after his divorce in 1978 from his college sweetheart, the mother of his two daughters.
It emerged that for 10 years he had had a second family, fathering a son with his mistress, who later sued him in a case that was finally settled out of court.
A lot of people thought that Cochran - being a Black LA Defense Attorney -- was extremely anti-police, yet Cochran supported his son's decision to join the California Highway Patrol, despite his frequent battles with police departments in court.
Cochran said, but more importatnly knew that many poor (and not so poor) black people feared the police more than they feared criminals. "People in New York and Los Angeles, especially mothers in the African-American community, are more afraid of the police injuring or killing their children than they are of muggers on the corner," he said. In LA, it's a known fact that LAPD was and continues to be "at war" with the Black community. Remember the details of the Rampart Scandal? Where cops received "play" medals of honor for shooting and/or killing niggas?!? In his office he displayed copies of the multi-million dollar cheques he had won for people who said they were abused by police.
And while his greatest fame came from representing celebrities, he said the clients he cared most about were ordinary citizens.
After the Simpson case, Cochran concentrated more on civil cases, but remained an admired figure in the black community for his quest for justice and his philanthropy, which included helping to fund a university scholarship and a low-income housing complex.
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