FAREWELL JOHNNIE COCHRAN

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

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.

"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 once said.

By the time Simpson called, the byword in the black community for defendants facing serious charges was: "Get Johnnie."

Over the years, Cochran represented football great Jim Brown on rape and assault charges, actor Todd Bridges on attempted murder charges, rapper Tupac Shakur on a weapons charge and rapper Snoop Dogg on a murder charge.

He also represented former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. When Cochran helped Pratt win his freedom in 1997 he called the moment "the happiest day of my life practicing law."

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Say what you want about OJ, but Johnnie Cochran was a great man. The bashing that good defense lawyers continue to receive, year after year, infuriates me. Our legal system only works when defendents get adequate representation, and when I say "adequate," I mean as good as the prosecution. Consequently, our legal system rarely works as intended. Men like Cochran have been a shining light, symbolizing what justice ought to be, throughout the history of our nation. I remember vividly a film I saw when I was in elementary school about founding father John Adams risking the ire of fellow American colonials when he defended the British Soldiers who fired into a crowd during the Boston Massacre simply because of his belief that they needed adequate legal representation. Cochran lived his life as an exemplar of that very American tradition established by Adams.

OJ may not be innocent, but Cochran did the city of Los Angeles a great service by showing how corrupt, inept, and racist the LAPD was back in the early 90s. His death is a great loss.

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