The Gist Elliot Williams: "We'll get the girls from Annie to even things out"
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Jan 26, 2026 Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor who wrote Five Bullets, guides a dive into Bernie Goetz and his 1980s subway shooting trial. He recounts courtroom oddities like a ballistics reenactment with Guardian Angels. They probe how New York's fear, race, and juror perceptions shaped the case and why conviction or acquittal were both legally defensible.
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Goetz's Prior Gun Incidents
- Bernard Goetz carried a gun and had pulled it on people at least twice before the subway shooting.
- Elliot Williams says Goetz was "itching to gun someone down" and was ready to use deadly force.
Hybrid Reasonableness Standard
- New York used a hybrid subjective-objective reasonableness standard for deadly force.
- Juries first assess the defendant's sincere fear and then judge actions against an objective societal standard.
The Dangerous Confession
- After the shooting Goetz fled and later gave a rambling confession without a lawyer present.
- Williams notes the jury discounted that confession as the ramblings of a man on the run for nine days.
