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American Morning

Still Talking O.J.

Aired December 18, 2002 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Next week, we'll do a series on the big stories of the year, and among our guests will be lawyers Johnnie Cochran and our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. We recorded that conversation yesterday, and although we were reflecting about the big legal stories of this year, we couldn't help but bring up that other big story, the one that made Johnnie Cochran a household name.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Big event seeing Johnnie Cochran here.

ZAHN: I know. Do you guys like each other?

JOHNNIE COCHRAN, ATTORNEY: Yes, we like each other.

TOOBIN: We like each other a lot. We disagree on certain matters, certain cases that shall remain nameless.

ZAHN: How's O.J. doing these days?

COCHRAN: When I last talked to him, he's doing OK. I haven't talked to him lately.

ZAHN: Has he been behaving himself?

COCHRAN: Well, I certainly hope so. If he wasn't, we'd know about it, in the news.

ZAHN: Want to give him some grief about the resolution of that case?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, I've given him grief at hundreds of occasions.

COCHRAN: Well, you paged and blamed and (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

TOOBIN: He knows how I feel about this case. He won fair and square. I don't know if that's the quite description of that trial, but he certainly won, and my hat's off to him.

ZAHN: Yes, how good was this guy?

TOOBIN: He's great. Look, you know, when I get in trouble, he's the guy, you know.

ZAHN: What did O.J. Simpson tell you before his trial went underway? Did he always maintain his innocence?

COCHRAN: Always maintained his innocence and never -- everybody associated with that would tell you, always maintained innocence from the very beginning. Never has wavered on that.

ZAHN: You look skeptical.

COCHRAN: He always did.

TOOBIN: Just because you maintain your innocence doesn't mean you are innocent. But...

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: But that's fine. That was the question...

COCHRAN: Please remember this. There wasn't enough time to do all the things that they tried to say he did.

TOOBIN: We're starting again.

COCHRAN: And -- and they tried to frame him. But we won't go into the facts here.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: I guess, you know, it was those Colombian drug lords who somehow are still out there. But O.J.'s looking for them, so there's hope.

COCHRAN: See now, see that's skepticism, when you rush to judgment. We still hear after all these years...

TOOBIN: How many -- it's almost 10 years. That's hardly a rush to judgment.

ZAHN: How vigorously is O.J. Simpson pursuing who he believes are the killers?

COCHRAN: I haven't talked to him lately about that, but I know there was a period of time he had some investigators really looking. But the problem was it was, you know, once the LAPD, which is not exactly the paragon of police work -- made this decision, Paula. I've got to tell you. They didn't want to look at anybody else. He could have (ph) somebody right now, they're not going to pay attention. Isn't that right, Jeffrey?

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Because there was so much evidence against O.J. ...

COCHRAN: Oh, sure.

TOOBIN: ... why would you look at anybody else?

COCHRAN: Well, talk (ph) to the jury about that. They thought they had a mountain of evidence, but it turned out to be a molehill, as it turned out.

ZAHN: Molehill?

TOOBIN: Well, look, he won. I mean, the jury believes him, so who am I to criticize?

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: But he got paid to do it.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: I have no complaints.

ZAHN: Well, it's nice to see the two of you sitting on a sofa, side by side, and you didn't do any bodily harm to each other.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Great to see you. Continued good luck to you. Jeffrey, thank you.

TOOBIN: And counselor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 18, 2002 - 09:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Next week, we'll do a series on the big stories of the year, and among our guests will be lawyers Johnnie Cochran and our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. We recorded that conversation yesterday, and although we were reflecting about the big legal stories of this year, we couldn't help but bring up that other big story, the one that made Johnnie Cochran a household name.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Big event seeing Johnnie Cochran here.

ZAHN: I know. Do you guys like each other?

JOHNNIE COCHRAN, ATTORNEY: Yes, we like each other.

TOOBIN: We like each other a lot. We disagree on certain matters, certain cases that shall remain nameless.

ZAHN: How's O.J. doing these days?

COCHRAN: When I last talked to him, he's doing OK. I haven't talked to him lately.

ZAHN: Has he been behaving himself?

COCHRAN: Well, I certainly hope so. If he wasn't, we'd know about it, in the news.

ZAHN: Want to give him some grief about the resolution of that case?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, I've given him grief at hundreds of occasions.

COCHRAN: Well, you paged and blamed and (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

TOOBIN: He knows how I feel about this case. He won fair and square. I don't know if that's the quite description of that trial, but he certainly won, and my hat's off to him.

ZAHN: Yes, how good was this guy?

TOOBIN: He's great. Look, you know, when I get in trouble, he's the guy, you know.

ZAHN: What did O.J. Simpson tell you before his trial went underway? Did he always maintain his innocence?

COCHRAN: Always maintained his innocence and never -- everybody associated with that would tell you, always maintained innocence from the very beginning. Never has wavered on that.

ZAHN: You look skeptical.

COCHRAN: He always did.

TOOBIN: Just because you maintain your innocence doesn't mean you are innocent. But...

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: But that's fine. That was the question...

COCHRAN: Please remember this. There wasn't enough time to do all the things that they tried to say he did.

TOOBIN: We're starting again.

COCHRAN: And -- and they tried to frame him. But we won't go into the facts here.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: I guess, you know, it was those Colombian drug lords who somehow are still out there. But O.J.'s looking for them, so there's hope.

COCHRAN: See now, see that's skepticism, when you rush to judgment. We still hear after all these years...

TOOBIN: How many -- it's almost 10 years. That's hardly a rush to judgment.

ZAHN: How vigorously is O.J. Simpson pursuing who he believes are the killers?

COCHRAN: I haven't talked to him lately about that, but I know there was a period of time he had some investigators really looking. But the problem was it was, you know, once the LAPD, which is not exactly the paragon of police work -- made this decision, Paula. I've got to tell you. They didn't want to look at anybody else. He could have (ph) somebody right now, they're not going to pay attention. Isn't that right, Jeffrey?

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Because there was so much evidence against O.J. ...

COCHRAN: Oh, sure.

TOOBIN: ... why would you look at anybody else?

COCHRAN: Well, talk (ph) to the jury about that. They thought they had a mountain of evidence, but it turned out to be a molehill, as it turned out.

ZAHN: Molehill?

TOOBIN: Well, look, he won. I mean, the jury believes him, so who am I to criticize?

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: But he got paid to do it.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: I have no complaints.

ZAHN: Well, it's nice to see the two of you sitting on a sofa, side by side, and you didn't do any bodily harm to each other.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Great to see you. Continued good luck to you. Jeffrey, thank you.

TOOBIN: And counselor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com