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May 5, 2006 11:27 pm US/Eastern
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Punishment Is Due For Boot Camp Death Subjects
Doctors Now Say Anderson Died Of Suffocation
Nurses Stood By Watchin As Guards Punished Anderson
by Jim DeFede
(CBS4 News)
Several weeks ago the parents of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14-year-old boy who died after being beaten by guards at a Panama City boot camp, made a heart wrenching decision.
They asked that the remains of their son be unearthed so that a second autopsy could be performed.
It was not an easy decision, and it was surely one the family agonized over. But they wanted to learn the truth behind their son's death and the only way they could find that truth was by unearthing their child's body from what should have been his final resting place.
On Friday we learned the results of that second autopsy. Martin Lee Anderson, who in death has come to symbolize the brutality and folly the state's boot camp system, died at the hands of guards who suffocated him.
After punching and kneeing Anderson, the guards covered his mouth and forced him to inhale caplets filled with ammonia.
The ammonia caused his vocal chords to spasm, swelling shut his airway until he eventually passed out and died.
And why were these barbaric tactics employed? Because Anderson was too weak to run laps around the boot camp and the guards thought he was faking.
He was weak, and they killed him.
This second autopsy contradicts the findings of the original pathologist on the case, Dr. Charles Seibert, who concluded Anderson died from a sickle cell trait - a finding which has been roundly rebuked by the scientific community.
Friday's autopsy results by Dr. Vernard Adams falls more in line with the results of the family's own medical expert, Dr. Michael Baden.
But while we are now a step closer to knowing the truth, more needs to be done. Armed with these findings, the special prosecutor in the case needs to move forward in pressing criminal charges against not only the guards who were present and participated in this heinous act, but the nurse, who stood by and watched as a young child was killed.
And let's not forget Dr. Seibert, the original pathologist whose findings have now been soundly rejected.
Either Dr. Seibert was trying to cover up for the good old boys in the Panhandle or his medical prowess is highly suspect. In either event he should be removed from office and replaced with someone who the public can have confidence in so that parents - like Martin Lee Anderson's parents - will never have to face the agonizing task of digging up their child's remains to discover the truth.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)