Direct Download: 20021125-johnnie.mp3

Johnnie Cochran had been well-known in Los Angeles courtrooms as a folksy orator since the 1960s, but the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial catapulted him to international fame – a status he gladly acknowledges in this bare-knuckles memoir of his years in court. Cochran devotes most of his account to cases that address repeated themes – police negligence and outright perjury, the difficulties minorities face in securing impartial justice, and the inherent unfairness of racial profiling. Cochran describes his methods, and explains the reason for his rhyming summations like “If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit” in his memoir, A Lawyer’s Life, co-written with David Fisher.