October 3, 1995 was the date of arguably the most watched program in American history. EVERY appliance store that sold televisions, every radio at your desk, everyone driving in their car was tuned into a feed of some sort that was to relay the verdict of the trial of the century. I surmise that more than 90% of America was aware that the verdict was to be read on live television and 85% of those people were watching or listening some way. Not since the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s, almost 30 years before, had the country been divided along such actual drawn out racial lines. The trial of Orenthal James Simpson had galvanized the U.S. into such fervor that many were afraid of violence to follow once those verdicts were read. Since the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her “friend”, Ron Goldman, NFL great, OJ Simpson had gone from legendary pitch man to infamous would be killer.
To understand the very complex OJ one has to know the background that shaped him. As the son of Eunice and Jimmy Lee Simpson, “Juice” as he was called, found his refuge from the hardscrabble streets of San Francisco in sports. One of the main reasons that contributed to OJ immersing all his energies into football was that his father, as big any NFL player of the day, was a transvestite who loved to show up around the family home he was banished from in drag. For the young Orenthal to get mercilessly teased about his father being dressed as a woman, it in turn pushed him to seek out anything that would make as masculine as possible as a way to further distance himself from his dad. Jimmy Lee was well known in the streets of SF as the “de facto” leader of the transvestite community of San Fran. The “Juice” also became his local gang leader and a guy known for beating people up probably as a way to show he was a “man’s man”. While the “Juice” excelled as a track and football star, his grades were much less than stellar and caused him not to receive a college scholarship once he graduated high school. In turn he had to attend a junior college in San Francisco where his father and his posse would show up in full drag cheering young Orenthal on.
While his play on the field was nothing less than incredible, his work off of it in the classroom still left a lot to be desired. Once USC came a calling and offered OJ a way out of the ghetto, he jumped at the chance. His handlers there realized that they had a diamond in the rough with Simpson and knew he was willing to learn and become a good student and an even better person. The USC handlers were able to teach Simpson to control his rage, “speak properly” for interviews and public appearances, and conduct himself in a manner befitting the “USC way”. He was eventually became the first pick the 1969 AFL draft and was on his way to the top. Who would have thought that less than 30 years later that one autumn day, he was on the cusp of losing everything he worked so hard for: NFL status, endorsements, business interests, a minor movie career, television gigs, and most importantly family.
The People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson brought together what was to be the best prosecution team the City of Los Angeles could muster versus the best “Dream Team” OJ could afford with the help of some of his wealthy friends, i.e. Dick Endberg and Bill Cosby, could afford. Simpson’s stardom crossed racial lines, even skewing more to whites than to blacks, was going to make getting a guilty verdict a certain challenge but not one that could be overcome. Christopher Darden was handpicked to be the one to go after OJ as he was a seasoned veteran of the L.A. D.A.’s office and had enough smarts and clout to sway the jury his way, so they thought. One important fact that was left out of the equation was that he was mentored and taught the ropes by the man he was to go up against. If this scenario was to be likened to a television show, Darden was to play the Kwai Chang Caine role and his “master” was named, Johnnie Cochran. Throughout the trial, Darden would attempt to snatch the proverbial pebble from Cochran’s hand.
Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. is and always will be seen as the gold standard for African American lawyers. He is the proverbial “G.O.A.T.”. It’s almost as if, “none before him none to come”. Johnnie was a long time veteran of battles in Los Angeles courtrooms. Starting off his career in Los Angeles’ City Attorney’s office and then later moving to private practice, he represented a wide range of clients. Johnnie was a trail blazer which garnered him a reputation as someone to get advice from when pursuing a case. He became the go to lawyer for cases specializing in police brutality. He went back to the city office and became the first Black Deputy D.A. in Los Angeles history. He eventually went back to private practice and went on to become a “celebrity” attorney known for getting his clients out of serious jams. As the template not just for African American attorneys in Los Angeles but the whole country, Johnnie helped many a lawyer rise through the ranks and one of them who followed in his footsteps was Christopher Darden.
Johnnie and Chris were very good friends and spent a lot of time together on and off the clock. They routinely consulted each other on various they were working on. Johnnie was not OJ’s original counsel. This distinction belonged to attorney Robert Shapiro but once it was realized that Shapiro was more on the “cut a deal” vibe, the “Juice” brought Johnnie in to take over. Much of Johnnie’s brilliance was due to the fact that he subscribed to the motto, “Business, Never Personal”, which many lawyers did not and still don’t to this day. Unfortunately for him, Darden was one to take things as a direct slight attack against him so it was hard for him to separate his friendship from his adversarial relationship with Johnnie. With both Cochran and Darden being members of the organization, Loved Ones of Homicide Victims, they were obligated to show up to an event for it right before Johnnie was to have his first day in court as OJ’s lead attorney. At this event Johnnie told Chris to not take anything that happens in the course of the two facing off in court personally and that once they were off the clock they would resume their good friendship. Darden said he understood but as the course of trial progressed it was slowly becoming clear that he did not. Chris’ biggest problem was that very fact that he held grudges for a long time and could not separate court room from lunch room. Johnnie, ever a hall of justice strategist, preyed upon that very fact.
In court, Johnnie only showed emotion when called for. Knowing how to prick and prod at Chris was Johnnie’s specialty during the trial. Even though they rode the elevator together to and from the court every day and everything seemed cordial, quietly beneath the surface Chris was allowing his brooding mental state take him out of his game as he saw what he thought was his certain victory slowly slip away. Since the trail was televised across the world for what it seemed to be24/7 <x-apple-data-detectors://1> , Johnnie had everyone associated with the defense color coordinated at certain times as a way to project positivity and unification throughout the airwaves. So certain days were all white or all yellow dress. He routinely beat Darden to the punch and suffered few trial setbacks. Johnnie biggest coup were the bloody gloves which Darden thought for sure was to be the prosecution’s biggest triumph. Those gloves ended up being the reason Johnnie was able to clinch victory for the defense and set OJ free. This year, several AFTER Johnnie death, Chris Darden went on to proclaim that Johnnie somehow altered the gloves as not to fit on OJ’s hands. What a sore loser and cowardly since Johnnie is not here to defend himself against the allegations. Needless to say, Johnnie and Chris’ relationship was null and void after the trial was over and Johnnie won.
Once the trial dust was settled, Johnnie had some advice for the “Juice”. One would surmise that if someone just saved your life and knew you were in danger of putting yourself in another predicament, you would listen very closely. Johnnie told OJ to do two things since everything was over as a way to rehabilitate his image with the African American community who supported him the most throughout the duration of the trial. The first of which was to do a “Black Church” tour across the US. He would go to a few select major cities across the nation and appear at churches and thank all who supported him as a show of gratitude. In typical OJ fashion, he of course did the opposite and only appeared at the Boulevard Cafe in South Central Los Angeles for a few minutes. The other idea Johnnie suggested was for Simpson to “get lost” and what he meant by that was lay super low. OJ’s massive sized ego to match his massive sized head would not allow him to do it and he in turn is in prison again for something trivial because he either would not or could not heed the words from Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., The Greatest of All Time.
By @ArtemusGordon on Instagram
