Attorney Johnny Cochran Dies

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Johnny Cochran

(Los Angeles-WABC, March 29, 2005) — Eyewitness News has learned that famed attorney Johnny Cochran has died after battling an illness.


Cochran began his legal career in the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. He later started his own firm, becoming one of the best known trial lawyers in the country.

He was Michael Jackson's attorney in the 1990s and brokered the multi-million dollar settlement in the first child sex abuse case against the pop star.

Of course, he was also the head of O.J. Simpson's defense team.

Locally, he represented Abner Louima in his civil suit against the NYPD.

ABC News is told he passed away in his home today, after suffering from an inoperable brain tumor.

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1. Shocked!!!!

I was checking my email at work tonight and saw it. I t is so shocking, because he seem so vibrant.

I saw his law firm commercial recently, so I am blown away right now. He was a great civil rights advocate and will be truly missed.

[Brewman_Jax]

2. Article on him on NPR this morning

I didn't realize that he did so much. There's always more to an individual than what is reported.

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3. Article on the life of Johnnie Cochran in the New York Times.

March 30, 2005

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Trial Lawyer Defined by O.J. Simpson Case, Is Dead at 67
By ADAM LIPTAK


Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., whose fierce, flamboyant and electrifyingly effective advocacy in the O. J. Simpson murder trial captivated the country and solidified his image as a master of high-profile criminal defense, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 67.

The cause was a brain tumor, said a law partner, Peter J. Neufeld.

Mr. Cochran was already a prominent Los Angeles lawyer in 1994, when Mr. Simpson, the former football star, asked him to join and then lead the lawyers defending him on charges that he had killed his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend of hers, Ronald L. Goldman.

The televised trial riveted the nation for most of 1995 and rocked it that October, when the jury acquitted Mr. Simpson. He was later held responsible for the killings in a civil case, where another jury evaluated much of the same evidence against a more relaxed standard of proof.

Before the Simpson case, Mr. Cochran was best known for bringing police brutality cases on behalf of black clients and for representing celebrities in trouble. Both experiences proved valuable at the Simpson trial.

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4. Cochran had a long career before O.J.

He was a very well-known attorney in Los Angeles before the OJ case, specializing in some police brutality cases that were very embarrassing for the Los Angeles Police Department under Darryl Gates.

This was a big shock!

[goclark]

5. The Memorial Service was a beautiful tribute

I am so glad that I attended.