Cochran, Prosecutor Meet About Tate Case
By BRAD BENNETT
The Miami Herald
March 26, 2001
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Outspoken in his defenses of O.J. Simpson and Sean "Puffy" Combs, "dream team" lawyer Johnnie Cochran was uncharacteristically silent on details of his meeting Sunday with prosecutors to map out a defense for Lionel Tate.
Cochran said he planned to file a motion to appeal the 14-year-old's life sentence for murder this week and that he might ask Gov. Jeb Bush to reduce Tate's sentence.
He would not comment on a third option that is now on the table.
"I'm hopeful there will be further conversations as we seek to bring resolution to this matter," Cochran said after meeting with prosecutors for an hour at Broward assistant state attorney Ken Padowitz's office in Fort Lauderdale.
A Broward Circuit Court judge sentenced Tate on March 9 to life in prison for killing 6-year-old family friend Tiffany Eunick by slamming her 48-pound body around the living room of his Pembroke Park home when he was 12 years old.
Cochran had a meeting with Padowitz, assistant state attorney Charles B. Morton Jr., Tate's Fort Lauderdale appellate lawyer Richard Rosenbaum and Tate's defense psychologist Laurie Butts.
Padowitz, who mounted the case to convict Tate as an adult, has said he would be willing to seek clemency for the boy.
He, too, was mum on Sunday's meeting.
"It was just a conversation about a number of different matters that we cannot comment on," he said.
A jury convicted Tate of first-degree murder. His defense attorney argued that Tate killed Tiffany accidentally while mimicking professional wrestlers.
Cochran expressed sympathy for Tiffany but called her death and the verdict a double tragedy.
"From a distance, I saw this case, and I was just troubled by it," Cochran said.
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