“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
–Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.
For more than a year, the nation watched spellbound as the O.J. Simpson case wound its way through the courts. And no one was more fascinating than Simpson’s lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran Jr.
He baited Christopher Darden till the prosecutor fumed. He flirted with Marcia Clark till she purred. He called the mostly black jury “my people” and, during his closing argument, asked them to acquit Simpson and “send a message” to the Los Angeles Police Department.
In the middle of the trial, he became the story when his first wife accused him of beating her during their marriage–a charge he denies–and “Hard Copy” revealed that he has a son with a white woman. His two wives, including his present one, Dale Mason Cochran, have been black. Among a cast of characters Scott Turow couldn’t top–Simpson himself, Kato Kaelin, Mark Fuhrman, Paula Barbieri–Cochran, in peacock-bright suits, surrounded by Nation of Islam bodyguards, held his own.
Now he has written his autobiography, “Journey to Justice” (One World/Ballantine). It reveals a career that was outstanding long before the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. There was a stint as a city attorney and one in the district attorney’s office where he investigated government corruption and police shootings, celebrity clients like Michael Jackson, and multimillion-dollar civil suits against the LAPD.
In fact, O.J. Simpson doesn’t show up till Chapter 10.
Q–If you’re African-American, everything is about race, isn’t it?
A–It’s what I call “two-ness.” I am a lawyer, but to others, I’m a black lawyer. We’re American, but we’re African-American. We live with the concept of race every day. We don’t talk about it, but we live with it.
Q–Can you envision us talking about it?
A–We have to. The Simpson case was like pulling back this carpet. And under this carpet is all this dirt and nobody is dealing with it. There’s massive denial. It’s interesting that two Americas, one black and one white, could see the same evidence and honestly read it differently because of their life experiences. The black person may say, “I don’t always trust the police. I don’t think they always tell the truth.” The white person says, “What are you talking about?”
Q–What would this dialogue sound like?
A–It would start with African-Americans telling how they feel about the justice system. You could start with the Scottsboro boys, and then the Tuskegee experiment, the Rodney King verdict. Verdict after verdict where blacks feel the system failed them. The Simpson case is about one time that African-Americans felt justice was done. White America needs to know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of black America.
Q–Don’t black Americans need to know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of white Americans?
A–Blacks know. We grow up walking in both worlds. We know a lot more about whites than they know about us.
Q–What kind of racism do you experience today?
A–Try to get a cab if you’re an African-American, even if you’re in a suit and carrying a briefcase. You walk on an elevator and a white lady will clutch her purse. I don’t go around looking for racism, but I know it exists.
Q–You were stopped by the police once, weren’t you?
A–It was in 1982. I was with two of my children. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I had been to a fundraiser for the D.A. I was taking my kids to a toy store, driving 30 miles an hour. I had a Rolls-Royce with a license plate JCJR. All of a sudden I hear this bull horn. “Get out of the car and put your hands up.” An officer comes along with his gun out. My children are crying. He opens my bag and sees my badge. I was No. 3 in the prosecutor’s office at the time. He starts waving everyone off. I said, “Just a minute. Why did you stop me?” He said they thought the car was stolen. I said, “That’s not why. It’s because of race.” It reinforced what all my clients had told me about getting harassed by the cops.
Q–That must have made you very angry.
A–For a while. Particularly when my daughter said, “Aren’t you and the police on the same side?” I thought how my father and mother had insulated me from Jim Crow. When I was (growing) up, everyone was black and Baptist and all the food was fried. That was my world. I didn’t find out about segregation until one summer when we drove through Texas. I was going into the washroom and I didn’t see the signs that said White and Colored. A man said to me, “Can’t you read, boy?” My mother and father came and spirited me away.
Q–Two of your clients, O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, didn’t have much of a profile in the black community until they got into trouble.
A–The African-American community is very forgiving. When someone is in trouble, we identify. The one place O.J. feels comfortable today is in the black community.
Q–What kind of response do you get from people now that the trial is over?
A–Immediately after, I was on a plane, and the pilot came out and whispered to me, “You did a great job!” I thought, “Why is he whispering?” Then I realized that it’s very hard for white people to speak up. They’ll say, “I may not agree with the verdict, but if I’m in trouble, I want you on my side.” They understand that I’m an advocate. I did my job. I didn’t change the facts. I didn’t play the race card. I dealt with credibility.
Q–You haven’t experienced the backlash that has dogged Simpson?
A–The most unpleasant thing happened in the men’s room at O’Hare. A retired LAPD officer said, “You had to humiliate us, didn’t you?” I said, “Sir, you humiliated yourselves.” He said, “Well, don’t come to Idaho.” I said, “I have no intentions of coming to Idaho. It’s not on my schedule.” Then there was a columnist who wrote that Johnnie Cochran was a good lawyer, but a bad citizen.
Q–Was he making the point that race relations are worse since the Simpson trial?
A–They’re not. White people thought everything was fine before, but it wasn’t. If you were a regular African-American or a Hispanic, things weren’t so fine. You have a tough time all the time, but you don’t complain about it all the time. The church bombings in the South, they were before Simpson. Rolling back affirmative action, that was before Simpson. The mean-spiritedness in this country predated Simpson. The Simpson case just revealed how people felt. There’s more conversation about race since the trial, and that’s good.
A–One of the things the trial revealed to white people is how much reverse racism there is.
A–That’s true. They never felt the sting of injustice which black people feel all the time. Someone said in the Simpson case, the white male, who controls so much in America, had a very small role. There was Marcia Clark, Chris Darden, myself, Barry Scheck, a Jewish fellow, the judge was Asian.
Q–What did you mean when you said the jury was “my people”?
A–I consider downtown L.A. my home court. I’ve practiced there for 33 years. I know the hearts and minds of the people. I was looking for a jury who knew the LAPD, and who knows them better than black females? Every mother, every sister, every aunt has had someone who has been harassed by the LAPD. That doesn’t mean they can’t convict, but if you have a theory that someone played with the evidence, it’s going to go over better with people who have lived with this.
Q–Were you surprised at the animosity that black females had toward Nicole Simpson?
A–Yes. I didn’t think they would necessarily like her, but I zealously stayed away from saying anything negative about her. I would not do that. I was not going to get involved in her running around.
Q–Do you think it’s a mistake that the defense in the civil trial has tried to tarnish her reputation?
A–I have a lot of respect for (Simpson attorney) Bob Baker and I recommended him. I wouldn’t second-guess him. People always ask, “If O.J. didn’t do it, who did?” I think the murders were drug-related and I think Baker believes you have to give this jury some other people who may have had motives.
Q–Why aren’t you involved in the civil trial?
A–I opted not to do it. After 15 months, I had a practice to get back to. I’m working on the Oklahoma City bombing case, the Reginald Denney civil trial. I figured I’d given it everything I could.
Q–What is your relationship with Simpson today?
A–We still talk on the phone. I tell him to hang in there. He’s got to go through the civil trial and then the battle for his kids. We’ve never had an argument. The toughest time we had was because he wanted to testify and I didn’t think it was necessary.
Q–Do you think white America will ever accept him again?
A–If the real killers are found.
Q–That’s probably not going to happen. The trail is awfully cold.
A–People’s views have become hardened. Even if he wins the civil case, that won’t change anything. The question is, what does he want to do? He can’t go back to being a pitchman on television. That’s never going to happen.
Q–You write that you believe God has a purpose for your life. What is it?
A–It’s still being revealed. But part of it was to prepare me for the Simpson case. Part is to make a difference in the African-American community. I founded Cochran Villa to supply housing for the homeless. I sponsor a scholarship at UCLA for African-American males. Now my lot is to speak out on things I think are right. I talk about education. It is the key to our salvation. Knowledge is power. If my life stands for anything, it’s that you can make it in this country, despite all the obstacles.
Q–Robert Shapiro said you dealt the race card from the bottom of the deck, but the Simpson case was always about race, wasn’t it?
A–Most things in America are about race.
