The Nation - News from Nov. 23, 1988

New York state’s highest court upheld Bernhard H. Goetz’s conviction for illegal possession of a gun, the only charge he was convicted of after he shot four youths on a New York City subway car Dec. 22, 1984. The state Court of Appeals in Albany said in an unsigned, three-paragraph ruling that the judge at Goetz’s trial, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Crane, did not make an error in his instructions to the jury that found Goetz guilty of criminal possession of a weapon. Goetz was acquitted in 1987 of attempted murder and assault but convicted of illegal possession of an unlicensed concealed gun. The unanimous decision means Goetz now faces resentencing on the third-degree weapons charge in state Supreme Court, New York’s trial-level court.