Bo Cochran, Acquitted in 1997 After 19 Years on Alabama’s Death Row, Dies at 73

James Willie “Bo” Cochran, who spent 19 years on Alabama’s death row for a killing he did not commit, has died at age 73. His lawyer, Richard Jaffe, said that Mr. Cochran and his case “are reasons why the death penalty does not work. He did not kill anyone, was wrongfully convicted and found innocent because he had lawyers that took up his cause.” Mr. Cochran, who is black, was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of a white grocery store clerk. His jury, which was composed of 11 white and one black jurors, had been told that the victim had followed Cochran out of the store after a robbery and that, after police had arrived on the scene, Cochran shot the clerk, leaving his body under a trailer in a nearby mobile home. There were no eyewitnesses to the actual murder. Cochran was arrested nearby with a gun that had not been fired. Cochran won a new trial after proving that prosecutors unconstitutionally removed black jurors from his case on the basis of race. He presented testimony from former prosecutors that the DA’s office had a pattern of striking black jurors, had a philosophy that prospective black jurors “were anti-police, anti-establishment and should not be left on juries, if at all possible,” and that race was a factor in these strikes, “particularly where you had a white victim and a black defendant․” On retrial, Cochran was acquitted after presenting evidence that the victim had been accidentally shot by two officers responding to the robbery, who then panicked and moved the body under the trailer, where it was discovered by other officers. After Cochran’s acquittal, he and Jaffe made frequent appearances to talk about the case. Jaffe described Cochran as “never bitter, always grateful.” He called Cochran’s life “a story of redemption and forgiveness,” exemplifying the lesson that “We can be forgiving, no matter what happens to us. He truly touched a lot of lives. We loved Bo. He’ll be missed.”

Cochran does not appear on DPIC’s exoneration list, even though he was innocent of the murder, because of his admitted involvement in the robbery. Inclusion on the DPIC list requires exoneration of all charges.

(G. Garrison, “Man freed from Death Row dies; taught lesson of forgiveness, lawyer says,” AL.com (The Birmingham News), July 15, 2016.) Read the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, Cochran v. Herring, granting Mr. Cochran a new trial here. See Partial Innocence.