Just two days after Martin Luther King’s birthday, in paying homage to the late Johnny Cochran, Jr., Attorney B’Ivory LaMarr is expected to issue the same charge used back in the OJ Simpson Trial to the Edgecomb jury, some 27 years later. Attorney LaMarr, states our country still experiences some of the same racial challenges that Cochran coined as a “rush to judgment” when it involves African-Americans suspected of murdering prominent Caucasians. Attorney LaMarr highlights the comparisons between the two cases which both involved public figures, one a celebrity wife and one a prominent attorney. He further points to the botching of police investigations in collecting evidence, the use of the “N-word,“ flight by the defendants, and where both defendants were met with immense public scrutiny prior to trial.
Both cases also garnered national attention and covered live on CourtTV. While the Edgecomb defense claim differs from the OJ case, as the privilege of self-defense is asserted, the same bias and prejudices to the defendants pre-trial exists. Attorney LaMarr remembers watching the OJ trial as a young person and being exposed to some of the double standards embarked in our society early-on, which served as one of his aspirations to become a lawyer. Attorney LaMarr hopes that the next generation of lawyers don’t experience the same biases that exist in our country today, and the use of the respected Cochran charge is not warranted due to the growth and healing in our society.
