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Video | Boot camp beatingBOOT CAMP DEATH | GO TO MIAMIHERALD.COM FOR VIDEO OF THE BEATING INCIDENT
State asks to exhume teen's body
The family of Martin Lee Anderson must decide whether to exhume his body for a second autopsy after his death in a juvenile boot camp.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER, CARA BUCKLEY AND MARC CAPUTO
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
PANAMA CITY - Martin Lee Anderson's parents are about to make the toughest decision since watching the videotape of officers roughing up their son at a Panama City boot camp: Should they remove him from his grave to get a fresh autopsy?
''It's such a tough call because we want the truth to come out, but it's hard to dig him out of the ground,'' said family lawyer Ben Crump. ``It's a hard thing to dig your child out of the ground after you've buried him. He can't even rest in peace.''
The family already had been considering whether to exhume Martin's body from the cemetery a block away from his father's house. But events half a state away, in Tampa, may force Robert Anderson and Gina Jones to decide quickly: A special prosecutor, Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark A. Ober, has asked the family for permission to exhume. It's Ober's job to determine whether anyone should be held criminally accountable for Martin's death.
At issue: whether the 14-year-old died from complications of a genetic blood disorder, sickle cell trait, that affects one in 12 blacks -- as the medical examiner in Panama City concluded -- or from the beating he received from up to nine officers at the Bay Boot Camp in Panama City.
Martin lies in a fresh grave in an all-but-nameless cemetery; locals call it Redwood Cemetery, because it lies on Redwood Street.
It is a bedraggled little graveyard encircled by a chain-link fence, where teenagers sometimes gather to party and discard their beer bottles when they're done. Martin's grave is covered by a rectangular concrete marker with his name printed on it.
Alongside the grave lie bright plastic flowers and dying red roses. A cluster of half-deflated, heart-shaped Valentine's Day balloons were left by an anonymous valentine. At night, Martin's final resting place is lit by four garden lights that can be seen a block away by his dad.
But over what certainly will be a long, agonizing weekend, Jones and Anderson will decide whether to unseal his casket and allow doctors to cut his remains a second time. Members of their church, Springfield Methodist, will gather Sunday to help the family pray over its decision, Crump said.
''We've got to bring him out of the ground,'' Crump said Friday. ``But it is so hard for the mom and dad to do that.''
The family retained a retired New York City medical examiner, Dr. Michael Baden, to review the work of Bay County Medical Examiner Charles Siebert, and perhaps to complete a full new autopsy if, and when, Martin is exhumed, Crump said.
Baden is best known for his work as a consultant on the congressional investigations into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King JrHe hosts the HBO series Autopsy.
Among fans of celebrity trials, Baden already is a household name: He's been an expert witness in cases involving Medgar Evers, John Belushi, Kobe Bryant and Robert Blake. Martin's family intends to have Baden present during a second autopsy, if the couple decides to exhume their son, Crump said.
''We think Dr. Siebert's report is not accurate,'' Crump said. ``The family certainly does not want Dr. Seibert's outrageous findings to be what allows their son's death to have been in vain.''
The spokeswoman for Ober, who was appointed as the special prosecutor by Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday, declined to discuss the investigation Friday. ''Nothing has changed on the case,'' Pamela Bondi wrote in an e-mail to The Miami Herald.
Ober has enlisted the help of Hillsborough County's pathologist, Dr. Vern Adams, who has been Tampa's chief medical examiner since 1991.
''I told him I would help with the investigation,'' Adams said Friday. ''That's all that has happened.'' Adams declined to discuss details, or whether his office would conduct a full second autopsy.
Dr. Stuart Toledano, director of the University of Miami medical school's division of pediatric hematology and oncology, who has been studying sickle cell trait and disease for more than three decades, said the controversy surrounding Martin's death on Jan. 6 likely would subside following an independent review of the autopsy.
''If the parents consent to it, it may yield more information,'' Toledano said. ``Fresh eyes examining the entire autopsy report . . . would be very helpful also.''
But Siebert, contacted Friday by The Miami Herald, continued to defend his work, as he has done consistently since releasing his autopsy report Feb. 16.
''I'm confident in my findings,'' Siebert said. ``I'm not worried about anyone else finding anything different. Nothing was hidden. We did a thorough job. I am confident anyone else who does a second autopsy will arrive at the same conclusions.''
