The boot camp death of Martin Lee Anderson, Florida, 2006. No one found guilty. [View all]

[madfloridian]

I noticed in kpete's post about a sign being held by France Francois that she had been among the protestors when Martin Lee Anderson was killed on his first day at boot camp in Florida.

He was killed by the guards who were to protect him with a trained nurse standing by.

Through the years he has been forgotten mostly, so good for Ms Francois for protesting his death.


Francois said the sentiment behind the sign is rooted to her days as a student at Florida State University when she protested the death of Martin Lee Anderson, a 14-year-old boy who died after being beaten by boot camp personnel. After months of silence from authorities over his death, Francois, along with other students from Tallahassee Community College, Florida A&M University and Florida State University staged a 34-hour sit-in at then- governor Jeb Bush's office, in Tallahassee, Fla.

More about his death at the hands of guards while a nurse watched.

The boot camp guards and nurse who killed Martin Lee Anderson will have to live with their actions.

.."A state court jury acquitted the guards and nurse of manslaughter on Oct. 12, 2007. Federal authorities then began investigating whether the boy’s civil rights were violated.

The Justice Department said in a news release that investigators did not have enough evidence to pursue criminal charges. Prosecutors would have had to prove that the boot camp employees’ intent was willful — the highest standard imposed by the law, the release said.

The video showed the seven men punching Anderson and using knee strikes against him. It also showed them pushing ammonia capsules into his nose and dragging his limp body around the camp’s yard. The nurse did not appear to intervene during the incident.

The sequence of events was quick.

At 6:30 in the morning on June 5, 2006, Martin Lee Anderson is admitted to boot camp.

At 9:06 am the use of force begins.

At 9:45 am the paramedics take Martin Lee Anderson

At 1:00 pm he was transported by air to Pensacola to the hospital where he died the next day.

The guards who beat him were just acquitted as was the nurse who stood by.

When he was buried the St. Pete Times noted that both sides wore crosses around their necks.

Anderson trial tells two tales of a town

The jurors, the accused, the courtroom so divided you could label one side "guilty" and the other "not guilty" like guests at a wedding - all went still when the video played.

....Folks on both sides wore crosses around their necks - God was on their side, maybe, or they just needed him to get through this.

The guards - Dickens, McFadden, Helms, Enfinger, Garrett, Hauck and Walsh - each stood to look into the faces of the jury as their attorneys introduced them. They are husbands, fathers, retired military, working stiffs. They did not look like evil men who set out one morning to kill a boy. Which makes the jury's job that much more complicated.

How small a town is Panama City? Just across the street from the courthouse where the guards and nurse are being tried sits the camp. Shut down like the rest in Florida after the video made national news, it sits abandoned, razor-wire gates rusty.

A few blocks over is the cemetery, the grass too high, fence sagging. He is there, flanked by stone angels, not a hero, not a monster, just gone.

What will the jury call what happened to Martin Lee Anderson? Sad comes to mind. And sorry. And wrong.