In the week before Christmas 1984, news of a lone gunman who had shot four African-American teens on a New York City subway car captivated millions. Nine days later, a quiet electronics engineer, Bernhard Goetz, turned himself in to authorities. Goetz claimed that he had shot the youths in self-defense, believing they were about to rob him. The Goetz case sparked heated public debate over crime and the American criminal justice system.

Born Bernhard Hugo Goetz Jr. on November 7, 1947, Goetz grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. His father was a strict disciplinarian of German heritage, and Goetz emerged as a bookish child. He graduated from New York University in 1969 with a degree in electrical and nuclear engineering and avoided the Vietnam draft by deliberately giving the impression that he was mentally unstable during the interview process. After college, he lived in Florida for a time...