LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Johnnie Cochran, the charismatic attorney who became famous for his successful defense of football star O.J. Simpson on murder charges, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles of a brain tumor, spokespeople said.
Cochran began his career as a crusader against police abuses, often in cases involving black clients, but is best known for the trial that won a controversial acquittal for Simpson on murder charges in 1995.
Simpson was accused of murder in the June 12, 1994, stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted despite what prosecutors described as a "mountain of evidence" against him.
Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman were stabbed and slashed outside her condominium in west Los Angeles. Prosecutors used DNA evidence to show that Simpson's blood was present at the crime scene and the victims' blood was on a glove at his Brentwood home.
Casting the case against Simpson as a conspiracy led by a bigoted cop bent on framing his client, Cochran's fiery oratory struck a nerve in a city still divided after 1992 race riots. He exhorted the mostly black jury to strike a blow against racism and police corruption by setting Simpson free.
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Hmmm, wonder if you could start a race war in hell?
Junglizm: Maybe you culd cut down on the ------ to keep from breaking tables. This is the fourth post of yours I've had to edit.
Cochran began his career as a crusader against police abuses, often in cases involving black clients, but is best known for the trial that won a controversial acquittal for Simpson on murder charges in 1995.
Simpson was accused of murder in the June 12, 1994, stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted despite what prosecutors described as a "mountain of evidence" against him.
Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman were stabbed and slashed outside her condominium in west Los Angeles. Prosecutors used DNA evidence to show that Simpson's blood was present at the crime scene and the victims' blood was on a glove at his Brentwood home.
Casting the case against Simpson as a conspiracy led by a bigoted cop bent on framing his client, Cochran's fiery oratory struck a nerve in a city still divided after 1992 race riots. He exhorted the mostly black jury to strike a blow against racism and police corruption by setting Simpson free.
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Hmmm, wonder if you could start a race war in hell?

Junglizm: Maybe you culd cut down on the ------ to keep from breaking tables. This is the fourth post of yours I've had to edit.