JOHNNIE COCHRAN, the lawyer famous for successfully defending the American football star O.J. Simpson on double murder charges, died last night from a brain tumour.

Before his death at 67, Mr Cochran said that he had had no regrets about the “not guilty” verdict, and that he still believed Mr Simpson’s version of events on the night his former wife died.

Mr Cochran began his career as a crusader against police abuses, often in cases involving black clients, but is best known for the trial that won an acquittal for Mr Simpson on murder charges in 1995.

Mr Simpson was accused of murder in the June 12, 1994, stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, and was acquitted despite what prosecutors described as a “mountain of evidence” against him.

In one of the trial’s defining moments, Mr Simpson appeared unable to put on a pair of gloves connected to the double murder. Mr Cochran famously told the jury: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

The lawyer died at his home in Los Feliz, a bohemian part of Los Angeles, with his wife and two sisters at his bedside. A family statement said: “Certainly, Johnnie’s career will be noted as one marked by celebrity cases and clientele. But he and his family were most proud of the work he did on behalf of those in the community.”

Mr Cochran’s career began in the 1960s when he represented the widow of Leonard Deadwyler, an African-American motorist killed during a police stop in Los Angeles. He won an historic financial settlement. But his clients were not always black. He unsuccessfully represented Reginald Denny, the lorry driver beaten by a mob during the 1991 riots in Los Angeles.

Mr Cochran was Michael Jackson’s lawyer when the singer faced child abuse charges in 1994.

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