Word: goetz
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...Goetz stood utterly motionless while Jury Foreman James Hurley pronounced 17 times the words "Not guilty." Not guilty of the attempted murder of Troy Canty, 20, and Barry Allen, James Ramseur and Darrell Cabey, all 21, even though the reedy, bespectacled gunman had said in a taped confession that he "wanted to murder" all of them. Not guilty of assault against any of them, not even Cabey, left paralyzed and brain damaged. The courtroom audience gasped at several of the verdicts and at the end applauded...
...case of People v. Bernhard Goetz raised such basic and emotional questions about a man's right to defend himself, about street crime and racism, that the jury decision on this inherently inconsequential shooting prompted headlines around the world. SUBWAY VIGILANTE CLEARED, said the London Times. SCARY SUBWAY, SELF-DEFENSE, said Tokyo's Sankei Shimbun. "Despite the virtuous denials of the jury," declared Paris' Le Monde, "no one believed, of course, that the verdict would have been the same if the accused had been black and the 'victims' white...
...central issue in the seven-week trial was not just whether Goetz feared that the four youths were about to rob him but also what a "reasonable man" would do in his own defense. Only one of the four victims, Canty, actually approached Goetz and asked him for money. All four had police records, but Goetz could not know that. Two of them carried screwdrivers because they were planning to break into some video machines, but Goetz could not know that either. He could only look at them -- he said that Canty was smiling and had "shiny eyes" -- and guess...
Assistant District Attorney Gregory Waples strenuously argued that a reasonable man would avoid a confrontation, or at least would show his gun before firing it. Goetz, said Waples, was full of "blind, self-righteous, volcanic fury." Far from acting reasonably, he had attempted a "cold-blooded execution...
...only principal who testified fully was Canty, neatly attired in a suit. He did admit that he had a police record for theft and was in a drug- rehabilitation program, but he said nobody had harassed or threatened Goetz at all. He had just politely asked, "Mister, can I have $5?" Defense Lawyer Barry Slotnick called Canty a "liar...