Attorney Johnnie Cochran Dies

Best Known For Simpson Defense, Also Had Many Wins For 'No-Js'

(CBS/AP)  "He was so much more than what most people will remember him for, so much more than the Simpson case," says Cohen. "He was a fine attorney before that trial and a fine attorney after it and even if he had never been involved in the Simpson case he would have gone down as one of the more prominent attorneys of his era."

Over the years, Cochran represented football great Jim Brown on rape and assault charges, actor Todd Bridges on attempted murder charges, rapper Tupac Shakur on a weapons charge, rapper Snoop Dogg on a murder charge and rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs on gun and bribery charges stemming from a nightclub shooting.

Cochran came up with the "if it does not fit, you must acquit" phrase in the Simpson trial when the former football player tried on a pair of bloodstained "murder gloves" to show jurors they did not fit. Soon after, jurors found Simpson not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

"For better or worse, O.J. Simpson literally owes the rest of his life to Cochran, who came into that infamous case, took over, herded into line a bunch of other high-ego defense attorneys, and came up with strategy that won the acquittal," says Cohen.

"I've got to say, I don't think I'd be home today without Johnnie," Simpson said by telephone from Florida. "I always tell people, if your kids or your loved ones got in trouble, you would want Johnnie. Even his adversaries respected him."

After Simpson's acquittal, Cochran appeared on countless TV talk shows, was awarded his own show on cable's Court TV, traveled the world giving speeches, and was endlessly parodied in films and on such TV shows as "Seinfeld" and "South Park."

Cochran also represented former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. When Cochran helped Pratt win his freedom in 1997 he called the moment "the happiest day of my life practicing law."

His clients included the family of Tyisha Miller, a 19-year-old black woman shot to death by Riverside police who said she reached for a gun on her lap when they broke her car window in an effort to disarm her.