Word: cochran
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Cochran is quick to dismiss what promises to be one of the biggest challenges for the defense: Simpson's alleged pattern of past abuse. ``[The prosecution] has tried to tear him down piece by piece,'' he insists, ``but O.J. is not charged with getting into an altercation with his wife on Jan. 1, 1989. That matter was litigated in the courts, and it is over.'' Cochran also intends to stress the timing of the murders, using what he calls a ``commonsense'' approach. ``When did the person--who would be totally covered with blood--have time to dispose...
...this has been Cochran's only acknowledgment that there may in fact be tough times ahead. In an interview last week with Time, he appeared cool, determined, even upbeat. Fielding calls in his ultramodern Wilshire Boulevard office from his second wife Dale and from Simpson's friends Paula Barbieri and Robert Kardashian, Cochran offered a preview of the strategy he will roll out this week. He will examine many of the witnesses, while Shapiro and two junior attorneys will handle the others; Bailey will conduct most of the cross-examination. Throughout, Cochran says, they will hammer on what he calls...
...Cochran brings another key ingredient to the mix--his credibility in the African-American community. For despite pronouncements by Shapiro and others that race will not be a factor (even in the face of defense allegations of racism on the part of LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman)--and despite the fact that the fairness of O.J. Simpson's trial will more likely hinge upon issues of class and celebrity than upon skin color--the specter of racism looms large both inside the courtroom and out. ``Since so many African Americans don't trust the criminal-justice system--and for good reasons...
...some time it has been open season on African-American males, and it runs the gamut from the regular citizen to the celebrity,'' Cochran says. ``Whether it's Mike Tyson or Michael Jordan, there is a tendency to want to bring down people who have done well, and in representing these people there is an extra burden. So when you drive down the street and people say, `Johnnie, please save Michael,' `Please save O.J.,' there is a sense that if it can happen to Michael Jackson or O.J., it can happen...
...Simpson case was the first time a good friend had asked for Cochran's legal assistance, and the lawyer agonized over taking the case. Cochran says what finally made up his mind was his sense of justice--a sense honed perhaps more on one particular loss than on all his dramatic victories. In 1972 Cochran's client, Elmer (``Geronimo'') Pratt, a Black Panther accused of murdering a white schoolteacher, was sent to prison for life; 23 years later, Cochran still maintains that Pratt was framed by the FBI, and is still fighting for his release. ``It taught me that...