Johnnie Cochran
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit!” That line was made famous during the O.J. Simpson trial by a man who himself became a household name in America. His name was Johnnie Cochran. However, few seem to know that Johnnie Cochran was a well accomplished attorney and famous in his own right prior to the Simpson Trial.
Johnnie Cochran graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955 first in his class. Afterwards he attended UCLA, and in 1959 received a Bachelor of Science in business administration. One of Cochran’s heroes was Thurgood Marshall, so Cochran decided to pursue a career in law. He enrolled in Loyola Marymount Law School and obtained his Juris Doctor in 1962.
After passing the bar in 1963, Johnnie Cochran began working as a Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney in the criminal division. After two years later he decided to open up his own firm: Cochran, Atkins & Evans in Woodstock, Illinois. It was during this time that he represented a woman named Leonard Deadwyler whose husband has been shot and killed by several police officers. Although Cochran lost the case, he stated that this trial had been a turning point in his career. He realized that these kind of cases brought a lot of attention, which established his reputation in the black community as a champion of civil rights.
In 1978 Cochran left Illinois and returned back to Los Angeles where he became the first Black Assistant District Attorney for Los Angeles County. However after serving as a DA for five years, he went back to private practice opening the first of now twenty six Cochran Firms. His reputation as a trial attorney was almost untouchable, because of all of his great successes and theatrical trials wins.
Johnnie Cochran represented countless celebrities and high profile clients during his time. The most high profile case was of course the O.J Simpson, where he managed to get an acquittal for Mr. Simpson on multiple counts of murder. He was highly scrutinized for his help in this trial by many of the major media outlets, along with the general public. Later, he was accused of tampering with the evidence, but to date there has been no evidence to support that accusation.
Even after his unfortunate death from a brain tumor in 2005, Johnnie Cochran’s legacy continues to live on. His name is huge in both the courts, and in pop culture. Although most know him from the O.J Simposon trial, he accomplished so much more for the Black community. While he was alive he appeared in many television shows, and to this day he is mentioned in movies, music, and films. There are schools, and research centers named after him. Johnnie Cochran spoke of how inspired he was by Thurgood Marshall and how much he admired him. So it is fit that in the end Cochran himself is referred to as the Thurgood Marshall of his era.
