"Race" For The Puck (Non-Hockey Topic)

So Johnnie Cochran is dead. The world is a better place for it. "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind", John Donne famously wrote. I wonder if John Donne could have conceived of scum like Johnnie Cochran. ". . . and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee", Donne concluded. This bell doesn't toll for me. I don't know where Johnnie Cochran stood with God. Lots of people find religion on their deathbeds, and perhaps Cochran did. I believe that any one of us can find salvation in Jesus Christ. Anyone. We are all sinners. Every last one of us. Cochran may well be in heaven. That's between him and God. I really hope that, before he died, someone he trusted said to him, "Simpson did it, you know. He butchered those two poor people like hogs. He got away with it largely because of you, Johnnie. Make your peace with God, because you will not find absolution here on earth in the eyes of a great many people." Since I doubt very much that he would have done anything but surround himself with people who shared his twisted view of the world, that probably didn't happen. I hope that the reality of what he did was brought home to him in a way that made a meaningful impact, though.

I guess if I stood accused of a horrible crime that I truly and honestly didn't commit, I might be grateful to have a snake like Johnnie Cochran in my corner. In the Simpson case, though, he used his powers for evil rather than good. He inflamed the jury and took their focus away from the mountain of truly damning evidence against his client by inappropriately convincing them that they were charged with a purpose and a responsibility that went far beyond the guilt or innocence of Orenthal James Simpson ("O.J." no longer). He inserted the word "nigger" into the proceedings, dealing the race card ("from the bottom of the deck" in the words of former colleague Robert Shapiro) shamelessly and gutlessly, knowing that this despicable tactic was the only way he could win. He read the jury expertly and figured out that he had the right collection of idiots and sheep that he could lead away from the actual facts and evidence of the case ("Don't concern yourselves with all that DNA nonsense, brothers and sisters. It's just scientific mumbo-jumbo."), which could only have led to the logical and correct verdict of guilty, and down the path of his argument that it was up to them to right all the wrongs that had ever been done to black people since the dawn of time. Anyone who has really studied the case and has even half a brain could reach no other conclusion but that Simpson was guilty as hell. The evidence against him was overwhelming. He should be in jail today.

"Better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent man be punished" (or something like that) goes a defense lawyer's dictum - one of the emollient lies they probably tell themselves so they can sleep at night. Tell that to Lou and Juditha and Denise Brown, who lost their daughter and sister and saw justice robbed from them by you, Johnnie Cochran. Try to sell that shit to Fred, Patti, Kim, and the rest of the Goldman family, who lost their son and brother and watched you turn the trial into a joke - a circus - and make a mockery of the justice system, Johnnie Cochran. Maybe you did what a defense lawyer is supposed to do, but a case should be argued and won or lost solely on its merits.

You didn't do that, Johnnie Cochran. I know not and care not where you are now, but eternal shame be on your name.