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reprint or license thisBody of teen who died at boot camp exhumed for second autopsy
MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The body of a boy who died after he was punched and kicked by guards at a juvenile boot camp was exhumed Friday for a second autopsy, his mother weeping as his coffin was raised from the ground.
The body of Martin Lee Anderson was to be taken to Tampa, where it is scheduled to be autopsied Monday. Bay County's medical examiner concluded that Anderson, 14, died Jan. 6 from complications of sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder many blacks have. A camp video shows Anderson was beaten by guards.
"I want somebody arrested before next week's end. We need answers and we need arrests, preferably by the end of today," said state Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who sat with Anderson's family during the exhumation and spoke on behalf of the state's black legislators afterward.
Wilson recalled the exhumations of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and slain teenager Emmett Till, who died decades ago, saying that she wouldn't have thought such extreme action would be necessary in the this case.
"In 2006 we are still fighting for justice and we have to desecrate the grave of a young boy to accomplish this," she said.
Gov. Jeb Bush, speaking to reporters Friday in Orlando, said investigators needed to be given time to do their job. He has appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark A. Ober to investigate the death. Ober requested the exhumation. No guards have been arrested or fired, but the camp has been closed.
"If there is any action that will be taken, it will be based on (the state attorney's) investigation and if I need to take action based on that I will. Right now were waiting for the state attorney to make his determination," Bush said.
"If he says there was criminal wrongdoing and our office could help expedite any type of action based on that type of recommendation then we would."
The NAACP and the family's attorneys have requested that Dr. Michael Baden, who reviewed medical evidence in the slaying of Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., be allowed to review the case.
Anderson's parents, who have been outspoken about the case, did not make public comments at the cemetery on Friday.
Also Friday, The Miami Herald reported that documents kept by the boot camp show Anderson complained for 40 minutes Jan. 5 that he couldn't breath before an ambulance took him to a hospital, where he died the next day.
Officials of the boot camp operated by the Bay County Sheriff's Office have acknowledged that the encounter between Anderson and the officers injured Anderson.
The guards approached the teen after he dropped to his knees during a physical fitness test complaining he "was tired and couldn't breathe good enough to run any more," the report said.
Boot camp officials described in detail the final hour before Martin was rushed to a hospital, a period when they applied "knee strikes" to Martin's legs, "hammer strike" punches to his arms and several "pressure points" to his head - a technique banned by Department of Juvenile Justice head Anthony Schembri in 2004.
"This was a mugging couched in euphemisms," retired Miami juvenile judge Tom Petersen told the Herald in a story published Friday.
Ruth Sasser, a spokeswoman for Bay Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who ran the camp under contract with the state Department of Juvenile Justice, declined to comment on the report.
