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Bay Area Represented At Boot Camp Verdict Protest

RUGENE MOORE / The Tampa Tribune

People from the Bay area boarded buses to Tallahassee this morning to protest the not guilty verdict.

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By Thomas W. Krause of The Tampa Tribune and Chip Osowski of News Channel 8

Published: October 23, 2007

Updated: 10/23/2007 11:35 am

Special Report: Previous Coverage, Photo Gallery | News Channel 8 Video

Discuss The Verdict

Dozens of people from the Bay area boarded buses to Tallahassee this morning to protest the not guilty verdict given seven drill instructors and a nurse charged in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson after he collapsed at a Bay County boot camp in 2006.

Local black leaders are appalled that an all-white jury in Panama City found the defendants not guilty, and they want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

The protestors boarded two buses in Tampa this morning and arrived at the Tallahassee civic center about 10:15 a.m. Buses also picked up protesters from St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Dade City and Brooksville. About 70 people on the two buses joined several Bay area protestors who drove to Tallahassee, said Pat Spencer, the director for the Tampa Bay area National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

By the time they reached Tallahassee, they joined protestors in buses from across the state and were about 500 strong as they prepared to march to a courthouse, Spencer said. The protest is expected to last until 2 p.m.

Martin Lee Anderson died after being restrained and struck by drill instructors at the boot camp while a nurse looked on, occasionally checking his vital signs. The confrontation was captured by a surveillance camera.

Prosecutors argued that sickle cell trait, a typically benign genetic condition, might have contributed to Anderson's death but that the drill instructors' heavy-handed tactics caused him to suffocate.

Defense attorneys argued that the physical exertion of the boot camp exercise routine aggravated Anderson's sickle cell trait to the point that death was likely, regardless of the instructors' actions. The instructors, the defense said, followed procedure and had no way to know Anderson had sickle cell trait.

The jury sided with the defense, exonerating the instructors and nurse of the aggravated manslaughter charges. The jury also declined to convict on lesser charges including misdemeanor causing injury to a child.

After Anderson's death, the Legislature dismantled the state's military-style youth boot camps and the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement resigned.

In Tampa, about a half-dozen people holding signs and standing in front of the Hillsborough County Courthouse annex at Jefferson Street and Kennedy Boulevard were protesting the verdict.

One sign said, "Martin L. Anderson was 14 who's next?"

Another read, "Don't blame Martin, his mom and his grandma for his murder."

Yet another protestor held a sign blasting Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober, whose office prosecuted the case: "Mark Ober must go!!"

Ober's prosecutors in the case should have called their own experts on sickle cell trait, said the man holding the sign, James Smith, 63, of Riverview.

"In my opinion, he didn't seek to get proper evidence," Smith said. "He didn't bring everything to the table he could have brought."

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