THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511120117
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Famed Los Angeles prosecutor Marcia Clark got hers for $4.2 million. And co-counsel Christopher Darden got his for $1.7 million.
Now, Johnnie L. Cochran, the lead attorney for the O.J. Simpson defense team, is getting his, too - a book deal.
In an interview before his speech at Norfolk State University on Saturday, Cochran revealed that he had just sold book rights Friday. The book's likely title, he said, will be ``My Journey to Justice.''
``I'm real happy with our book,'' Cochran said, smiling.
Cochran declined to disclose details of the deal. ``I can't tell that,'' he said with a grin when asked the value of the contract.
Cochran has been on a whirlwind tour - Texas, Harvard University, Alabama A&M University. Saturday was Norfolk State's turn.
Cochran spoke at Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall as part of a project to raise scholarship money for six historically and predominantly black universities. Each would receive $2,000 from the proceeds.
The schools are Norfolk State University, Hampton University, Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia State University in Petersburg, St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville and Elizabeth City State University.
Cochran arrived for his first visit to Norfolk with an entourage of security in a white stretch limousine at the Merrimac Avenue home of his host family - the Peeles.
The ``preacher's chair'' awaited him at the head of Ada and Raymond Peele's crowded dining-room table laden with turkey, sweet potatoes, collard greens, homemade rolls and other Southern eats. But first, the stylish, smooth-spoken 58-year-old defense attorney, the target of death threats and harsh criticism in the trial's aftermath, talked briefly about the Simpson case.
``I've never seen anything quite like this case,'' Cochran said, after signing autographs and posing for pictures with guests.
``I've never seen the prosecution have such an obsession to win,'' he said, citing more than 30 years of legal experience. ``It seemed to me that they had different rules in this case.''
Cochran cited a number of factors, particularly media attention and the light cast on the nation's racial division, which stirred public emotions.
``I have to believe that race played a part'' in public attention, Cochran said. He contended that the public and media's interest would not have been so great had the case involved Simpson's first wife, Marguerite Thomas Simpson, who is black.
And the widely divergent reaction among blacks and whites to the case, Cochran said, was simply ``a wake-up call.''
``This case just exposed how we see things,'' he said.
The evidence that police officers can ``lie under oath'' or ``manufacture evidence,'' could not be ignored, Cochran said, and ``African Americans, due to our experiences, are more likely to listen to that type of evidence.''
``We didn't make up these facts,'' he said. ``There was example after example of unacceptable police conduct.''
As for former Los Angeles detective Mark Fuhrman, Cochran said, ``we tend to think he speaks for more than one person.'' Fuhrman's tape-recorded racist comments created a furor late in the trial.
However, Cochran said, ``denial is more than a river in Egypt . . . and people in the majority, they've been in denial'' concerning problems in police departments nationwide.
The difference, he said, is that historically, police are viewed as protectors in white communities, instead of oppressors.
Cochran said a full-time investigator is working for Simpson to find the killer of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman, while Los Angeles prosecutors have shown no interest in re-opening the case or taking any action against Fuhrman.
Cochran recently represented rap star Snoop Doggy-Dogg, who was facing a murder charge. The charges were dismissed after police inadvertently destroyed key pieces of evidence, Cochran said.
Cochran said the Simpson verdict, the Million Man March, and Gen. Colin Powell's decision not to run for president were watershed events in history.
``I'm sorry (Powell) didn't run,'' he said. ``Because of the nature of the system, we lose some of the best people.''
But, he said, ``it's encouraging to know that an African American would be considered for president of the United States.''
As for the march and organizer Louis Farrakhan, he said: ``I think you had to separate the overall message from the messenger.''
Now that the ``case of the century'' is over, Cochran said he will continue his work in law. He said he has no ambition in the political arena.
``I don't want to be a politician,'' he said. ``I'm happy doing what I'm doing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot
Johnnie Cochran, lead attorney for O.J. Simpson, is touring to raise
money for black colleges. Saturday, he said he's signed a book
deal.
by CNB