Full Text of HR0342 94th General Assembly
HR0342 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the | 3 |
| State of Illinois were deeply saddened to learn of the death of | 4 |
| Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., of Los Angeles, California, on March | 5 |
| 29, 2005; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Cochran was born October 2, 1937, in | 7 |
| Shreveport, Louisiana, to Hattie and Johnnie L. Cochran, Sr., | 8 |
| the great-grandson of slaves, the
grandson of a sharecropper, | 9 |
| and the son of an insurance
salesman; the family moved to | 10 |
| California in 1943 and settled in Los Angeles in 1949; he | 11 |
| attended Mt. Vernon Jr. High School where he discovered his | 12 |
| talent for debate; in the early 1950s he became one of only 12 | 13 |
| black students enrolled at the prestigious Los Angeles High | 14 |
| School; he excelled at the school, earning membership in the | 15 |
| Honor Society as well as playing on the football team; and
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| WHEREAS, When the Supreme Court outlawed legal segregation | 17 |
| in 1954, Thurgood Marshall became his hero, and it was then | 18 |
| that he knew he wanted to become a lawyer as there could be no | 19 |
| better way to serve humanity; and
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| WHEREAS, Upon his graduation from Los Angeles High School, | 21 |
| he attended UCLA and joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity | 22 |
| Incorporated, in which he remained active throughout his life; | 23 |
| after graduating from UCLA in 1959 he entered Loyola Law | 24 |
| School, and during that time he became the first black law | 25 |
| clerk hired by the Los Angeles City Attorney; and
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| WHEREAS, During this period of time he married Barbara | 27 |
| Berry and they had two daughters, Melodie and Tiffany; he also | 28 |
| had a son, Jonathan Cochran, with Patty Sikora; in 1981 he | 29 |
| married Sylvia Dale Mason; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Cochran passed the California bar in 1963 and |
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| became one of the first Deputy City Attorneys of Los Angeles, | 2 |
| where he became one of the top trial litigators; in 1965, he | 3 |
| resigned and started the firm Cochran, Atkins and Evans, which | 4 |
| handled a broad range of civil and criminal cases; in 1977, the | 5 |
| Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association honored him as | 6 |
| Criminal Trial Lawyer of the Year; shortly thereafter, he was | 7 |
| asked to return to the county as its first black Assistant | 8 |
| District Attorney; two years later he was named the Outstanding | 9 |
| Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the California Trial | 10 |
| Lawyers Association; and
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| WHEREAS, While working in the District Attorney's Office, | 12 |
| Mr. Cochran instituted many lasting reforms, among them the | 13 |
| establishment of the Domestic Violence Council and the Sexual | 14 |
| Assault Program, as well as successfully attacking the Los | 15 |
| Angeles Police Department's pattern of misconduct; he returned | 16 |
| to private practice in 1981, determined to continue challenging | 17 |
| the abusive practices of law enforcement; in 1991, he received | 18 |
| Los Angeles's Civil Trial Lawyer of the Year Award; he is the | 19 |
| only person to be honored for his work in both the criminal and | 20 |
| civil courts; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Cochran was able to use his success to extend | 22 |
| justice to the people who needed it most and could least afford | 23 |
| it; in the late 1990s, he founded The Cochran Firm, one of the | 24 |
| nation's largest plaintiff's law firms; he also joined with | 25 |
| "Dream Team" partners, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, to form | 26 |
| Cochran, Neufeld and Scheck, a firm that focuses on civil | 27 |
| rights cases involving police misconduct and wrongful | 28 |
| convictions; these firms put into practice, on a daily basis, | 29 |
| his lifelong dedication to fighting for the injured and | 30 |
| disenfranchised; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Cochran gave of his time, talent, and money to | 32 |
| numerous civic organizations and charities; he gave speeches | 33 |
| and lectured often at universities and conferences around the |
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| world; he was a frequent speaker at Harvard Law School; he | 2 |
| served on Pepsi Cola's African American Advisory Board, the | 3 |
| Board of the Lawyer's Mutual Insurance Company, the Board of | 4 |
| The Stay Strong Foundation, and the Board of the NAACP Legal | 5 |
| Defense and Educational Fund, an organization founded by | 6 |
| Thurgood Marshall; and
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| WHEREAS, He was the Chairman of the Upper Manhattan | 8 |
| Empowerment Zone; he was particularly proud that a school was | 9 |
| named after him, The Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Academy of Legal | 10 |
| Studies and Community Service in East Orange, New Jersey; he | 11 |
| was a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the | 12 |
| American College of Trial Lawyers, the Inner Circle of | 13 |
| Advocates, the John M. Langston Bar Association, the National | 14 |
| Bar Association, and the American Bar Association; he served on | 15 |
| the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners for 12 years, | 16 |
| and was its first black Chairman; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Cochran was preceded in death by his mother, | 18 |
| Hattie, and his younger brother, RaLonzo Cochran; and
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| WHEREAS, He leaves to cherish his memory a devoted wife, | 20 |
| Sylvia Dale Mason Cochran; his loving father, Johnnie L. | 21 |
| Cochran, Sr.; his dedicated children, Melodie T. Cochran, | 22 |
| Tiffany K. Cochran Edwards, and Jonathan E. Cochran; his | 23 |
| son-in-law, Javarro Edwards, his daughter-in-law, Cheryl | 24 |
| Cochran; his adoring sisters, Pearl Cochran-Baker and Martha | 25 |
| Cochran Sherrard; his brothers-in-law, William A. Baker, Sr., | 26 |
| and Fredric W. Sherrard; his precious mother-in-law, Daisy W. | 27 |
| Mason; his nieces, Arlyce Baker Chandler, Cherene Sherrard | 28 |
| Johnson, P. LaToi Cochran, and RaLicia Cochran; his nephew, | 29 |
| William A. Baker, Jr.; his great niece, Alexa Chandler; his | 30 |
| great nephews, Justin Lopez and Hayden W. Johnson; his uncle | 31 |
| Henry Bass; his aunt Janie Bass, and a host of family members | 32 |
| and friends; and
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| WHEREAS, Like Thurgood Marshall, Mr. Cochran's impact on | 2 |
| our world will continue to be felt for generations; he spent | 3 |
| his life proving that the rights guaranteed by the law of our | 4 |
| land indeed belong to all of us and that one determined man can | 5 |
| make a difference; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 7 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 8 |
| we mourn the passing of Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., and honor his | 9 |
| exceptional career, remarkable legacy, and significant | 10 |
| accomplishments; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 12 |
| presented to his family as an expression of our deepest | 13 |
| condolences.
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