History Lessons Count in Simpson Case, and Defense Has Top Teacher

When trying to understand the strategy of O.J. Simpson’s lawyers, it’s helpful to know a little history.

As you could see during a televised hearing on Monday, the defense has launched a hard-hitting attack not only on the Police Department, but also on the coroner’s office. Defense attorney Robert L. Shapiro blasted homicide detectives for waiting too long to call the coroner. Then he went on to assail the coroner’s office. “We are forever excluded from knowing the time of death,” he said. “The coroner simply threw away the contents of the stomachs, which is one of the best ways of determining time of death.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark sharply defended the investigation, saying: “We have investigators. They are not lawyers who nit-pick their way through every nuance.”

But perhaps Clark should be thinking of less flip answers, because sitting at the defense table is a man who has shown in the past that he knows how to unravel a police probe and who understands the mysteries and pitfalls of a coroner’s investigation.

He is Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

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As a young lawyer, Cochran stepped into the investigation of the death of Leonard Deadwyler, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a Los Angeles police officer. The cop had stopped Deadwyler’s car while he was rushing his pregnant wife to a hospital in 1966, a year after the Watts riot.

The case ended up in an inquest by a coroner’s jury that was televised live. Televising it was rare in those days, and the city watched, fascinated by the proceedings. Watts was still on L.A.’s mind. The atmosphere was politically charged, and the investigation of Deadwyler’s death became a powerful cause in the black community.

The community, still traumatized by Watts, watched with pride as the young black lawyer named Johnnie tore into the law enforcement establishment. Despite his efforts, the jury agreed with the police version, that the death was justified. The decision further polarized a racially divided city and left the black community more embittered against law enforcement. And it was the beginning of Cochran’s high-visibility legal career.

About a decade after the Deadwyler inquest, Cochran again took on the coroner’s office in a cause celebre case. This time he won.

It involved the death of Ron Settles, a black Cal State Long Beach football star who was found hanged in his cell in the Signal Hill jail after being arrested for speeding. The Signal Hill cops insisted that Settles hanged himself. But the jury ruled that Settles had died “at the hands of another.” His family was awarded $760,000 in a wrongful death suit settled in 1983.

Despite the victory, the Settles case still lingers in the memories of African American activists.

Cochran is also aware of another disputed coroner’s case, although he wasn’t part of it. Like most everyone else who understands L.A., he knows the scars it left.

That is the death of journalist Ruben Salazar, who was killed when sheriff’s deputies fired a tear gas canister into an Eastside bar during an anti-war demonstration in 1970. The missile struck and killed Salazar.

Salazar, a Times columnist and news director of Spanish language television station KMEX, had become a powerful advocate for the Latino community, and a critic of law enforcement methods in the Latino community. Even today, many Latino activists say he was assassinated.

But the cops said it was an accident. Three members of a coroners jury supported the accident theory while four others said only that Salazar died “at the hands of another.” It was a result that added to Latino community suspicion of law enforcement.

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Suspicion extends beyond minority communities.

John Van de Kamp, a former district attorney and state attorney general, told me recently, “There is greater skepticism about the veracity of police. Police are being treated more as regular witnesses today rather than coming in with a presumption of total integrity and honesty.”

As for the coroner’s office, Van de Kamp said: “We had very mixed experiences when I was D.A. . . . Their ability to testify is not first rate.”

All this history, all those feelings, go into the mix of potential Simpson jurors, who will be selected beginning Monday. Cochran’s experience and knowledge of L.A.--and the fact that he’s part of the city’s recent history--gives him a unique understanding of how to reach them.