James “Bo” Cochran

James “Bo” Cochran is an Alabama death-row survivor whose case moved from a racially biased jury selection to acquittal at a new trial. After nearly twenty years on death row, he was released; his reversal and freedom later formed one of three sharply contrasting outcomes in a documentary about the death penalty and Alabama prisoners who maintained their innocence.

Conviction, Reversal, and Acquittal

Cochran spent nearly two decades on Alabama’s death row. Federal courts eventually reversed his conviction because of racial bias during jury selection, and he was awarded a new trial. At that trial, a racially diverse jury found him not guilty of murder, and he was freed. The sequence—from a conviction sustained long enough to keep him on death row for years to acquittal before a different jury—makes the selection of jurors central to his account.

The Documentary and Its Contrasts

An Irish film crew came to Alabama to make a short documentary about the death penalty, featuring Cochran, Walter McMillian, and Robert Tarver. All three men maintained their innocence, but their cases ended differently. Cochran received a new trial after federal courts reversed his conviction over racial bias in jury selection, and the new jury acquitted him. Tarver was executed despite the prosecutor’s later admission that his jury had been illegally selected in a racially discriminatory manner; courts refused to review his claim because his defense lawyer had failed to make an adequate objection. The film’s juxtaposition placed Cochran’s release beside the consequences of a comparable jury-selection injustice that went unremedied.

Public Presentation and Narrative Significance

The Equal Justice Initiative hosted a premiere of the film in its meeting room, with about seventy-five people from the community attending. Cochran and McMillian were invited to address the audience. The account records Cochran’s presence in this public presentation but does not describe what he said; it specifically describes McMillian as struggling with the event. Cochran’s documented trajectory nonetheless gives the film’s contrast its force: correcting racial bias in jury selection brought him a new trial and freedom, while the failure to obtain review in Tarver’s case ended in execution.