Body of Florida lynching victim exhumed

The body of Martin Lee Anderson, the African-American kid who was kicked and pummelled to death in a penal "boot camp", was exhumed for a new examiniation: Body of teen who died at boot camp exhumed for second autopsy by Melissa Nelson St. Petersburg Times/AP 03/10/06.

Nelson's article provides another description of the beating Anderson received, which was videotaped, just before the boy died from what the coroner(whose medical examiner's license had expired) said was sickle-cell anemia:

Also Friday, The Miami Herald reported that documents kept by the Bay County Sheriff's Office 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 sheriff's office have said guards were trying to restrain Anderson after he became uncooperative.

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.

Related stories below:

This is the story quoted in the article cited above:

Guards detail youth's final minutes: A report written by guards at a Panama City boot camp offered officials' first detailed account of how they treated a 14-year-old boy who said he `couldn't breathe.' by Carol Marbin Miller Miami Herald 03/10/06.

Boot camp grads often arrested again: Of the 740 youths who went through the Pinellas County camp between late 1993 and late 2005, 666 were arrested later and 607 were convicted of a crime by Abhi RaghunathanSt. Petersburg Times/AP 03/10/06

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