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Body Removed for 2nd Autopsy
Family and community members watch as Martin
Lee Anderson's body is exhumed Friday. One onlooker calls it a
"resurrection for justice" in the teen's boot camp death.
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer
Published March 10, 2006
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PANAMA CITY - The body of 14-year-old who died
after he was beaten at a boot camp for juvenile offenders was
exhumed and sent to Tampa on Friday for a second autopsy.
Martin Lee Anderson died Jan. 6, one day after
he entered the Bay County Boot Camp. A surveillance video show a
half-dozen guards punching and kneeing him.
The Bay County Medical Examiner blamed the
boy's death on a blood disorder, sickle cell trait, not the beating.
Family members, state civil rights advocates
and some doctors disputed the autopsy findings.
At the request of the Bay County state
attorney, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Hillsborough State Attorney Mark
Ober to investigate.
Ober ordered a second autopsy, which will be
done by the Hillsborough medical examiner Monday. Family members
have hired a nationally known forensic investigator to view the
autopsy and review the findings.
On Friday, his mother, father and sister
watched as his black-and-gray steel casket was slowly raised from
the earth.
State law enforcement officials wrapped the
casket in plastic and evidence tape for the trip to Tampa.
The teen's parents were too upset to discuss
the case, so their attorney spoke for them.
"It's just an awful shame that we would have to
go through these extraordinary measures just to get justice," said
Benjamin Crump of Tallahassee. "We feel very confident that Martin
Lee Anderson did not die of natural causes and we think clearly that
the autopsy will support that."
The political fallout has reverberated
statewide.
Bay Sheriff Frank McKeithen announced that he
would close the boot camp, and the remaining offenders were
transferred Tuesday. State lawmakers are reviewing whether the
state's other boot camps - one is in Pinellas - are cost-effective
and safe. And some civil rights activists are citing the lack of
prosecution of the guards as evidence of racism.
"In 2006, we are still fighting for our
rights," fumed Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "Would you ever have
predicted that we, in America, in the state of Florida, would have
to endure the same kinds of tragedies of racism, bigotry and hate?"
Martin Anderson was sentenced to six months at
the boot camp after violating probation for stealing his
grandmother's car in June 2005.
"He was at church the day he stole his
grandmother's car," said Deval Russell, leader of Martin's youth
group at church. "He was a very positive kid. He was also very
strong-minded and had the potential to go far."
The youth's mother, who works at Burger King,
and his father, a truck driver, hoped the boot camp would stamp out
the teen's rebellious streak. He entered the camp Jan. 5.
Family members hope their expert, Michael Baden
of New York, will determine how their son died. Baden headed a
forensic panel that reinvestigated the deaths of President Kennedy
and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and reviewed medical evidence in the
slaying of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Baden will be in the
room during the autopsy.
On Friday, several church leaders and community
members - all black - gathered at the cemetery to offer prayers for
Martin and his family. Many noted that the cemetery is one of the
region's oldest black burial grounds, a resting place for the area's
earliest black settlers who braved racism in the decades after the
Civil War.
"This is a resurrection for justice," Dr. Rufus
Wood, of the Love Center Baptist Church, told the 50 people gathered
before Martin's open grave. "Justice will be served."
Tamara Lush can be reached at 727 893-8612 or
lush@sptimes.com [Last modified March 10, 2006, 23:29:36]
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