Subway shooter Goetz cleared
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from June 1987.
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Goetz, who claimed he fired in self-defense as the four tried to rob him, exhibited no emotion as jury foreman James Hurley read the verdicts in the crowded New York State Supreme Court room. The trial drew tremendous television and newspaper attention in the United States. To many Americans, the case highlighted a broad range of highly controversial issues: the widespread fear of crime, the carrying of firearms by private citizens and the prosecution of people who claim self-defense as a justification for killing or injuring others.
There was also the backdrop to the crime -- the often-forbidding New York subway system, where a special police force battles assaults and other crimes --and a racial element: Goetz is white; the men he claimed tried to rob him are black. Some people had expressed fears that a verdict exonerating Goetz would lead to a rise in vigilante justice in the United States.
The jury of eight men and four women reached their verdict on the fourth day of deliberation, shortly after they asked to rehear testimony by the only witness who said he saw Goetz shoot one of the four while the young man was seated.
The jury received the case Friday afternoon from Justice Stephen Crane after a seven-week trial. The jurors deliberated more than 32 hours over four days before reaching their conclusion. In all, Goetz was acquitted of 12 charges, including second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault, and was found guilty only of third-degree weapons possession, for using the unlicensed .38 revolver in the shooting that took place Dec. 22, 1984.
Crane set sentencing for Sept. 4 and continued Goetz's bail at 50,000 dollars. Goetz could be sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison. Earlier Tuesday, the jurors had reread the testimony of witnesses Christopher Boucher, a 30-year-old window display designer, and Loren Michals, 33, a credit manager.
Boucher, who was visiting New York, was with Michals on the subway when Goetz shot the teen-agers after one of them asked him for 5 dollars.
Boucher testified that he watched Goetz shoot three and then walk over to the fourth, Darrell Cabey, and shoot him while Cabey was seated. Goetz maintained that he shot the young men, all 19 at the time, because they had surrounded him and were about to beat and rob him.
Boucher was also the only witness to testify that he heard a pause between Goetz's fourth and fifth shot. The defense maintained Goetz fired the shots in "rapid succession," indicating that he was afraid and did not have time to reflect on what he was doing.
Crane also gave jurors a statement Boucher gave to police on the day of the shooting, in which Boucher said he believed there were five or six young men and that two were sitting on the bench where Cabey was shot.
Goetz, a 39-year-old electronics technician, was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and weapons violations in the shootings of Cabey, Troy Canty, Barry Allen and James Ramseur.
