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Hundreds Protest Boot Camp Verdict At State Capitol

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

Published: October 23, 2007

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VIDEOS: Locals Leave | Protest in Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE - About 700 people from across the state marched on the federal courthouse in Tallahassee today 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.

Dozens of people from the Bay area hopped on buses this morning to take part in the peaceful, well-coordinated event, which took place as members of the NAACP met with representatives from the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice about its investigation into possible civil rights violations surrounding Anderson's death.

Black leaders and student groups across Florida are appalled that an all-white jury in Panama City found the defendants not guilty, and have demanded that the Justice Department investigate. Today, department representatives told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that they were requesting court transcripts and were preparing to question witnesses, according to Chuck Hobbs, an NAACP legal adviser who took part in the meeting. Anderson's parents met with the Department of Justice attorneys after the rally as well.

The crowd marched through downtown Tallahassee, past the Capitol to the steps of the courthouse, where speakers raised not only the specter of Anderson but that of slain teen Emmett Till, a black boy killed by white men in 1955. The Rev. Bishop Victor Tyrone Curry of Miami noted that Till's death galvanized hundreds of thousands of people to protest that summer.

"Maybe what God is saying to us is Martin Lee Anderson is our Emmett Till of 2007," Curry said, to great applause.

Speaker after speaker also brought up Michael Vick, the black Atlanta Falcons quarterback charged in an illegal dogfighting case. One group of people in the crowd carried a banner that read "Kill a Dog, Go to Jail; Kill a Black Child, Go Free."

The protesters from Tampa boarded two buses in the 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 protesters who drove to Tallahassee, said Pat Spencer, the director for the Tampa Bay area NAACP.

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 protester 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."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski contributed to this report. Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813)259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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