One of the country's most talented attorneys (whether or not you believe in the guilt or innocence of his most famous client) passed today at the age of 67, of an inoperable brain tumor:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-032905cochran_lat,1,6747036.story?coll=chi-newsbre
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Obviously, Cochran has been, since 1996, one of the world's most controversial attorneys. Yet few people know that he began his career 42 years ago fighting for the rights of ordinary citizens (particularly African-American citizens) to be free from police harassment and brutality.
Whatever one thinks of...... (and I shudder to have to utter these initials) O.J., Cochran was a masterful trial attorney. He demonstrated, for the country, that the bulk of us who are trial attorneys/litigators of African-American descent are not just flukes of affirmative action, but genuinely capable of representing clients of all persuasions, with all types of claims, zealously and capably.
I hope that he rests in peace.