Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr.[1] (/ˈkɒkrən/ KOK-rən; October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) was an American attorney from California who was involved in numerous civil rights and police brutality cases throughout his 38-year career spanning from 1964 to 2002.

[2] Cochran also represented Sean Combs, Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Stanley Tookie Williams,[3] Todd Bridges,[4] football player Jim Brown, Snoop Dogg, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe,[5] 1992 Los Angeles riot beating victim Reginald Oliver Denny,[2] inmate and activist Geronimo Pratt, and athlete Marion Jones when she faced doping charges during her high school track career.

[9] Cochran was six years old when his family moved into a three-bedroom, one-bath, wood-frame house in West Adams, which was a middle-class neighborhood at that time.

He 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.

In A Lawyer's Life, Cochran wrote, "I read everything that I could find about Thurgood Marshall and confirmed that a single dedicated man could use the law to change society".

"[13] After passing the California bar exam in 1963, Cochran took a position in Los Angeles as a deputy city attorney in the criminal division.

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

[2] In his first notable case, Cochran represented an African-American widow who sued several police officers who had shot and killed her husband, Leonard Deadwyler.

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.

[25] During the trial, Cochran successfully convinced the jury that the prosecution did not prove Simpson was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that the police planted evidence against him.

[5] Robert Shapiro, co-counsel on Simpson's defense team, accused Cochran of dealing the "race card" "from the bottom of the deck".

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

When Jackson faced criminal charges for further molestation allegations in 2004, his family sought advice from Cochran, who recommended defense attorney Thomas Mesereau.

The court ruled 7–2 that in light of Cochran's death, an injunction limiting the demonstrations of Ulysses Tory "amounts to an overly broad prior restraint upon speech."

[45] Actor Phil Morris played attorney Jackie Chiles, a character parody of Cochran, in several episodes of Seinfeld.

[46][47] He 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",[48] a direct parody of his closing argument when defending O. J. Simpson.

[49] Additionally, he appeared as himself in The Hughleys, Family Matters, The Howard Stern Show, Arli$$, CHiPs '99, Bamboozled, Showtime, Martin, and JAG.

[50] Cochran is mentioned in the 2011 musical comedy The Book of Mormon, where he is depicted as being in hell alongside Genghis Khan, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Adolf Hitler for "getting O. J.

In the series, Cochran is depicted as fully aware that Simpson is responsible for the murders and initially reluctant to be part of the Dream Team, believing that they will lose.

Vance won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance.

To Fran's dismay, her elderly lawyer uncle refers to her skimpy skirt barely covering her buttocks, only to fall asleep in mid-session afterwards.

[53] In 2002, Good Charlotte released a song, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", in which a line makes reference to Cochran's defence of O.J.