Cochran was involved in the pretrial and indictment stages of the trial of four New York City police officers connected with the death.
A year later, the officers were cleared of all charges in connection with the incident, setting off a firestorm of protest across the country and at Harvard.
In his speech on Saturday, Cochran also criticized New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, saying his tough policy on crime has condoned police brutality.
"To make it worse in New York, we have a mayor who, I guess if I was kind, I would say tends to be insensitive on occasion," Cochran said.
While Cochran has been criticized for playing the so-called "race card" during his defense of O.J. Simpson, he said he believes race has to be discussed as the key factor in some cases.
"Jesse Jackson says it best when he says, 'It's like trying the case of a drowning man and never talking about water,'" Cochran said.
"It's not about being popular," Cochran added. Don't let anyone ever tell you about playing the race card, because that's just an attempt by other people to keep people from talking about [race]."
Cochran said he believes citizens should attack racial profiling through the judiciary.
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