Apr 04, 2020 · Actor and football star O. J. Simpson had four lawyers representing him at his trial for murder: Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, Robert Shapiro and F. Lee Bailey. Collectively, they were known as the “Dream Team.”. Kardashian died of esophageal cancer in 2003. His ex-wife is reality TV star Kris Jenner. Before succumbing to a brain tumor in 2005, Cochran had …
Jun 03, 2021 · See All. AP. F. Lee Bailey, the criminal defense attorney who helped successfully defend O.J. Simpson on murder charges, has died. He was 87. Bailey died today in Georgia, according to his son, as...
Feb 24, 2016 · O.J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) learned his lawyers' egos were a liability on the Tuesday, Feb. 23, episode of FX's 'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' — …
Jun 23, 2015 · Let's start with the prosecution. Lead prosecutor Marcia Clark was vilified following Simpson's acquittal. The attorney who introduced into …
Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr. (/ ˈ k ɒ k r ə n /; October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) was an American lawyer and civil activist best known for his leadership role in the defense and criminal acquittal of O. J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.He often defended his client with rhymes like "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"
On the prosecution side, Marcia Clark served as lead counsel, supported by Christopher Darden. Lasting close to a year, the trial and the events surrounding it were considered the most publicized events the world had ever seen. To many, it became a media circus full of colorful characters, opportunists and courtroom dysfunction ...
Pleading not guilty to the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, which occurred on June 12, 1994, Simpson hired a "dream team" defense, which included lead attorney Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran (who later took over as lead counsel), F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck, Robert Kardashian and Alan Dershowitz.
After prosecutor Darden made the mistake of demanding Simpson try on the ill-fitted bloody gloves, Cochran uttered the famous phrase: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.".
However, the blow that removed Shapiro from his lead status was when Cochran won Simpson's favor by visiting him in jail — something Shapiro preferred not to do with any of his clients. Once Cochran took over as lead counsel, Shapiro was vocally critical and attempted to distance himself from his team's chosen strategies. He would later tell Barbara Walters that "not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck."
Due to Kaelin's shiftiness on the stand , prosecutor Clark turned against him and treated him as a hostile witness. Regardless, Kaelin — with his thick tufts of blond hair and surfer dude ways — gained considerable popularity in the media as a likable and comedic character of the trial.
Reportedly, one juror wholly dismissed Park's testimony because he was unable to recall the number of cars parked at the Rockingham mansion.
Aspiring actor and houseguest of Simpson, Brian "Kato" Kaelin was a star witness for the prosecution. Present at Simpson 's Rockingham mansion at the time of the murders, Kaelin claimed that he ate dinner with Simpson that night but could not account for the star athlete's whereabouts between the hours of 9:36 p.m. and 11 p.m. (the prosecution theorized that Simpson murdered his ex-wife and Goldman between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.).
After her encounter with Ron’s family, Marcia was pulling for the death penalty because jurors selected for that type of trial would be even harsher. Her colleagues were quick to remind her that O.J. was an American legend and no one would ever vote for his execution. To put it in perspective, they said that even Charles Manson didn’t get the death penalty.
“They don’t like their men marrying white girls,” he said, referring to Nicole Brown, the ex-wife of O.J. who had been found murdered, prompting his arrest and subsequent murder charges.
Following the Simpson circus, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, he of the famous phrase “If it doesn’t fit you must acquit," went on to represent Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, winning him an $8.75 million settlement in his police brutality case against New York City.
But since the trial he has been busy, founding the websites LegalZoom.com, an online document preparation service, and ShoeDazzle, the shoe rental site helmed by none other than Kim Kardashian. He is also a partner in the firm Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro LLP.
Clark is working on the third installment in her book series, “Guilt By Ambition,” and there is talk of turning the novels into a television series.
Two years later, Cochran entered private practice. Soon thereafter, he opened his own firm, Cochran, Atkins & Evans, in Los Angeles. 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.
In 1964, the young Cochran prosecuted one of his first celebrity cases, Lenny Bruce, a comedian who had recently been arrested on obscenity charges.
Cochran. 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." Two justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said that Cochran's death made it unnecessary for the court to rule. Lower courts, before Cochran died, held that Tory could not make any public comments about Cochran.
In 1978 , Cochran returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office in the leadership position of First Assistant District Attorney. Though he took a pay cut to do so, joining the government was his way of becoming "one of the good guys, one of the very top rung.".
In 1990, Cochran joined a succeeding firm, Cochran , Mitchell & Jenna, and joined Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith in 1997.
Though Cochran lost the case, it became a turning point in his career. Rather than seeing the case as a defeat, Cochran realized the trial itself had awakened the black community. In reference to the loss, Cochran wrote in The American Lawyer, "those were extremely difficult cases to win in those days.
Cochran did not represent Simpson in the subsequent civil trial, and Simpson was found liable for the deaths.
But though the so-called “trial of the century” focused on Simpson as the lone suspect, Shapiro said prosecutors should have cast their net wider. “The prosecution wedded themselves to one knife, one killer theory,” the attorney said. “There is a strong possibility that more than one person was involved.”. ...
According to Shapiro, Simpson added, “‘You were right.'”. Shapiro was part of a “dream team” of lawyers who helped the former football star be acquitted in the deaths of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Shapiro said he instructed Simpson to march up to the jury, “hold up your hand like you’re holding the Olympic torch and pull and tug on that glove, because it will not fit.”. He added: “And clearly it didn’t.”. Kelly asked Shapiro whether he truly believed Simpson was innocent.
Image. Robert Shapiro, former defense attorney for O.J. Simpson, finally revealed what his client whispered to him after a jury pronounced him not guilty. Shapiro sat down with Fox News’s Megyn Kelly on Tuesday and discussed the 1995 double-murder trial – including Simpson’s first words to him after being declared a free man.
In 2012, Darden made headlines by accusing Johnnie Cochran of tampering with the seams of the infamous bloody glove. Lance Ito – An LA Superior Court judge long before he was handed the case that would define his career and make him an object of derision in many legal circles.
F. Lee Bailey – the legendary courtroom brawler who had once represented the Boston Strangler, loaned high-profile cachet even to a group as esteemed as the “Dream Team.” Bailey, now 81, continued to work as a defense attorney after the Simpson trial until 2003, when revelations of attorney misconduct led to his disbarment in the state of Florida and reciprocal disbarment in Massachusetts. Bailey’s re-application for a law license in the state of Maine was denied in 2012.
He went on to do humanitarian work for domestic abuse victims and the families of homicide victims, while also working as a professor at the Southwestern University School of Law, in Los Angeles, and founding his own firm, Darden & Associates Inc., in 1999.
Flipboard. Print. Email. It was a double murder that shocked the world and, at least technically, remains unsolved two decades later. On June 12, 1994, police found the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman outside Simpson’s Bundy Drive condo in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Almost immediately, suspicion focused on ...
Here’s a look at where some of the major players in what was called “the trial of the century” are now: O.J. Simpson – although the jury took his attorney’s advice that “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” the Buffalo Bills legend-turned-movie star is nonetheless behind bars. Simpson, who was found responsible for the deaths ...
Kato Kaelin – Ridiculed as a surfer-dude freeloader who lived with Simpson at the time of the murders, Kaelin ended up bringing little insight to the case with his digressive and contradictory testimony. He went on to become a self-deprecating television journeyman, appearing on sketch comedy programs like MadTV, hosting National Lampoon programs, and participating in various reality and game shows.
Johnnie Cochran – The lead attorney on Simpson’s “Dream Team,” who used folksy charm and simple rhymes to win over the jury – and earn his client’s freedom -- continued his successful career in private practice for another decade. Cochran founded his own firm, defending high-profile clients like Sean Combs and NYPD brutality victim Abner Louima until his death of a brain tumor in 2005.
O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Tragically, Cochran died on March 29, 2005, of a brain tumor, according to his New York Times obituary. Cochran was 67. He was survived by his wife, Sylvia Dale, ...
But he developed an inoperable brain tumor shortly after and died in March 2005 at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Certainly, Johnnie’s career will be noted as one marked by ‘celebrity’ cases and clientele,” his family said in a statement after his death.