“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Those famous words changed attorney Johnnie Cochran’s life. Despite anyone’s feelings about his most famous trial, his work was always about one thing.
Justice for us. Born two generations removed from enslaved grandparents, Cochran always knew how the system targets our people. Whites called him the “worst kind of racist” but they were big mad he was exposing the system for what it truly is.
“Until the Simpson verdict, many people in the majority community believed that the legal system in this country functioned properly,” he once said.
Today, we know that the system functions as it was designed, never straying too far from its anti-Black roots. He represented many celebrities, but civil rights and police brutality were what drew him to study law to serve us.
Cochran represented Leonard Deadwyler’s widow, a Black motorist killed by LAPD during a traffic stop while driving his pregnant wife to the hospital. He helped free Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
He fought for Black immigrants, including Haitian Abner Louima, who NYPD tortured, and Amadou Diallo, a Guinean man killed by NYPD. Cochran reminds us that we all have a role to play in serving our community. The choice is ours!