Word: goetz
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...Would Bernhard Goetz have gotten off if he were Black and his victims were white?" seems to be the key question surrounding the now celebrated subway gunnings...
...first it seems odd that something so irrelevent to the facts of the case would take up the not-so-valuable time of commentators on this month's not guilty verdict for Goetz. Weren't there enough actual problems raised by the case--questions of the applicability of confessions, and the bounds of self-defense--without dealing with the larger, tangential issues of racism? While the facts are crucial, there are also good reasons why critics have focussed on the hypothetical...
...Goetz case is not remotely like a lynching, but is rather the overreaction of a paranoid crime victim; a victim whose attackers were Black. It is precisely because there is no certain culprit--only a frazzled electrical engineer and a violent society--that this case is argued in terms of the hypothetical...
...verdict in the Goetz case does present an example of how subtle racism--the kind that is captured in statistical surveys--can play itself out in a tangible way. When courts consider the racially-linked paranoia of a crime victim, race becomes an issue. When courts indulge this paranoia, the verdict has aspects of race...
...often a lawyer's duty. Says Gillers: "If Litman were to say, 'Listen, / Chambers, this is your best shot, but I don't feel comfortable doing it because I feel it's morally wrong,' he would be guilty of malpractice." Another current trial in Manhattan, involving Subway Gunman Bernhard Goetz, demonstrates the legal value of blaming victims. Goetz offers self-defense as the reason why he shot four black youths who he suspected were preparing to rob him. His attorney has relentlessly highlighted the criminal intentions of the four. The American Bar Association's code of ethics, which requires that...