33 Facts About Johnnie Cochran

Johnnie Cochran represented athlete Marion Jones when she faced charges of doping during her high school track career.

Johnnie Cochran was known for his skill in the courtroom and his prominence as an early advocate for victims of police brutality.

Johnnie Cochran went to local schools and graduated first in his class from Los Angeles High School in 1955.

Johnnie Cochran earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1959 and a Juris Doctor from the Loyola Law School in 1962.

Johnnie Cochran was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, initiated through the Upsilon Chapter and the fraternity's 45th Laurel Wreath laureate.

Johnnie Cochran felt his career was a calling, a double opportunity to work for what he considered to be right and to challenge what he considered wrong; he could make a difference by practicing law.

In 1964, the young Johnnie Cochran prosecuted one of his first celebrity cases, Lenny Bruce, a comedian who had recently been arrested on obscenity charges.

Rather than seeing the case as a defeat, Johnnie Cochran realized the trial itself had awakened the black community.

Johnnie Cochran was litigating a number of high-profile police brutality and criminal cases.

In 1978, Johnnie Cochran returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office in the leadership position of First Assistant District Attorney.

In contrast to his early loss in the Deadwyler case, Johnnie Cochran won 760,000 for the family of Ron Settles, a black college football player who, his family claimed, was murdered by the police.

The Johnnie Cochran Firm has grown to have regional offices located in fifteen states.

In most of his cases Johnnie Cochran represented plaintiffs in tort actions and opposed tort reform.

Johnnie Cochran's well-honed rhetoric and flamboyance in the courtroom has been described as theatrical.

Johnnie Cochran owned homes in Los Angeles, two apartments in West Hollywood and a condo in Manhattan.

Johnnie Cochran had often liked to say that he worked "not only for the OJs, but the No Js".

Johnnie Cochran believed that his "most glorious" moment as a lawyer occurred when he won the freedom of Geronimo Pratt.

Johnnie Cochran said he considered Pratt's release "the happiest day" of his legal practice.

Johnnie Cochran did not represent Simpson in the subsequent civil trial and Simpson was found liable for the deaths.

Johnnie Cochran was criticized during the criminal trial by pundits, as well as by prosecutor Christopher Darden, for suggesting that the police were trying to frame Simpson because they were racist.

Johnnie Cochran successfully represented Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant living in Brooklyn who was sodomized with a broken broomstick by officer Justin Volpe while in police custody.

Johnnie Cochran effectively fought for Combs' freedom, and Combs was acquitted.

In 2002, Johnnie Cochran told Combs that this would be his last criminal case.

Johnnie Cochran defended 17-year old Stanley Tookie Williams in a robbery trial in the early 1970s.

Years later, Williams was arrested for assaulting LAPD personnel and was acquitted with Johnnie Cochran again serving as his counsel.

Johnnie Cochran did not represent Williams at his multiple murder trials in the 1980s.

Johnnie Cochran represented Michael Jackson when he was accused of child molestation in 1993.

In December 2003, Johnnie Cochran was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Johnnie Cochran died from the brain tumor on March 29,2005, at his home in Los Angeles.

Johnnie Cochran's remains were interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Lower courts, before Johnnie Cochran died, held that Tory could not make any public comments about Johnnie Cochran.

Johnnie Cochran was satirized in the "Chef Aid" episode of the animated sitcom South Park, in which he appears using a confusing legal strategy called "the Chewbacca defense", a direct parody of his closing argument when defending OJ.

Johnnie Cochran took these parodies in stride, discussing them in his autobiography, A Lawyer's Life.