CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Goetz affair happened during the Christmas week, which was about a gunman on a subway, who said he felt threatened by some fellow passengers and opened fire on them, he said, in self-defense. And it created, at the time, quite a stir in the city. During the trial, Goetz certainly maintained that he felt the need to carry a weapon because he had been picked on before and felt that he had the right to open fire because he claimed that he thought his life was in jeopardy. The other side claimed that Goetz was motivated by racism, and that had the people on the subway car -- had they not been black, he might not have felt compelled to shoot. So you had this really racially charged trial going on. And when it ended, I think it ended to no one's real satisfaction, that as I recall, the city was divided about the verdict.</s>FELDMAN: The case came to a dramatic climax as the jury foreman faced Bernard Goetz and declared that he had been found not guilty of attempted murder. The sole charge that Goetz was convicted on, illegal weapons possession, carries a 2 1/3 to seven-year prison term, but it is not mandatory, and it would be Goetz's first offense.
CNN 20: Goetz Shooting on N.Y. Subway, December 22, 1984