CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The heavy weight of the law has been lifted from Bernhard Goetz's shoulders after a jury agreed that he shot four black teens in a New York subway in self defense after one demanded $5 and others surrounded him. The case that has made headlines around the world for more than 2 1/2 years came to a dramatic climax in minutes as the jury foreman faced Bernard Goetz and declared that he had been found not guilty of attempted murder.</s>FELDMAN: It was trial that raised a lot of interesting issues. It raised issues about self-defense, about when somebody has a right to carry firearms, about when somebody has the right to use lethal force, if they feel that their own life is in jeopardy.</s>BARRY SLOTNICK, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think the true message is that people have a right to protect and defend themselves under justifiable situations and, quite clearly, that's what Bernard Goetz was all about.</s>FELDMAN: In a short period of time, details of a taped confession Goetz gave to police leaked to the press.</s>BERNHRAD GOETZ: How can I explain to you the realm of experience that you have never -- a different world that you have never experienced. We work at a different level in our mind.</s>FELDMAN: I think it ended to no one's real satisfaction. The city was divided about the verdict. Goetz was later sued in civil court by one of the people that he shot, and he lost the civil case.
CNN 20: Bernhard Goetz Acquitted, June 15, 1987