When Martin entered the boot camp in Florida on January 5th, his first encounter was to have his hair shaved off and to learn that he would no longer be considered Martin, he would from the on be referred to as "Offender Anderson". "Drill Instructors" are there as a constant reminder, with yelling, calling names and degrading teenagers. These DIs slammed the teenagers against the wall and used their thumbs to apply pressure in a painful way, to control the teenagers. The camp was run with fear, pain and exercise.
 

Born January 15, 1991, Martin died on January 6, 2006, as a result of an unlikely form of child abuse. For his crime, Martin was sentenced to spend time at a juvenile detention center which was run much like a boot camp,  in Panama City, Florida. According to a witness, Aaron Swartz, another teenager at the camp, during a routine exercise of running 16 laps, doing sit ups and push ups, Martin began to stagger and then fell. Charles Steven Enfinger, who is employed at the camp and has been said to be one of the most violent employees there, went to Martin and allegedly slammed him up against a wall. Henry

The rest of the teenagers finished their exercise and were told to sit down and keep their eyes facing forward. Aaron turned his glance sideways and could see what was going on, though he could hear some things, he was not able to hear it all. Aaron heard what is called radio code and knew it meant that applied what is known as a pressure point, to Martin. Aaron never heard any response from Martin. One of the men watching over the teenagers who were sitting down laughed and stated "Offender Anderson's going to have a long day".  Aaron witnessed another man, Cpl. Joseph Walsh work up a sweat from the struggle. During this incident, which can be seen on video, Charles Enfinger struck Martin over and over on his arm. The nurse came over and placed a pulse reading on Martin's finger, Aaron says he heard it beeping quickly.

The tone of the drill instructor FINALLY went from anger to concern and he said "Get the red bag" which had ammonia sticks used to revive the teenagers in order to make them continue with the routine exercises. According to a DDJ official, using ammonia to revive the teenagers in a non- medical way, is against their policy. The ammonia failed to revived Martin and an ambulance was called to the scene. 

Fifteen hours later, Martin was pronounced dead. The mental health counselor, Ms Miki told the other teenagers it there was a medical reason for Martin's death, using the excuse that athletes die every day caused by medical reasons.

Florida law says that a body has to be examined in the district where the person died or where the body was found, so a second autopsy was performed. At the request of Martin's family, Michael Baden who is the New York State Police Coroner, was there for the second autopsy. After 12 hours, Michael Baden confirmed what had been known all along, Martin had NOT died of complications of sickle cell or of natural causes. On May 6, 2006, the REAL cause of Martin's death was revealed. Michael Baden said that the cause of Martin's death was asphyxiation on ammonia fumes which was inhaled while guards held Martin's mouth closed and put them under his nose. The fumes from the ammonia caused a constriction in Martin's airway and this lead to asphyxiation and suffocation. 

FDLE Commissioner, Guy Tunnell who was the former Sheriff of Bay County was the one who opened the boot camp where Martin died. He sent e-mails to the current Sheriff, Frank
McKeithen with his plans for his efforts to make sure no one saw the video tape of Martin being beaten. His efforts proved to be pointless, the tape was released and viewed and show what had happened to Martin. In April of 2006, Guy Tunnell resigned.

On July 12, 2006 Robert Anderson and Gina Jones filed a $40 million dollar wrongful death
lawsuit against the Department Of Juvenile Justice and the Bay County Sheriffs Office. Claiming that Martin's civil rights had been violated by both defendants, they also said they had conspired to cover facts about the case. An offer was made by the women to settle for $3 million dollars and that offer was turned down by McKeithen who claimed that the settlement premature since the investigation was not yet complete. Unfortunately, if the case is won, the state has a damage cap of $200,000. Martin's life was worth much more than that. Attorney General Charlie Crist has said that the settlement of $3 million dollars would not be enough.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle set a trial date of April 16, 2007, at the same time he ruled and dismissed the civil rights and conspiracy charges against the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Bay County Sheriff's Office...they would not be held responsible for punitive damages.

On November 28, 2006 seven guards and the nurse who took no action during the beating, were arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter. Their arraignment will be held on January 18, 2007.

In April 2006 the Florida legislature voted to close the five boot camps in the state. A different, less military related program which does not allow physical punishment against the juveniles took it's place. The new facility is called STAR. The bill that enacted the STAR program was renamed the "Martin Lee Anderson Act" by the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush on June 1, 2006.

UPDATE:

SHOCKINGLY, the headlines on October 12, 2007 read:

What kind of people does it take to set eight people free, who obviously played a very real part in the death of a teenage boy?

The jury took ONLY 90 minutes to decide if the eight people responsible for the death of Martin Anderson would spend up to 30 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter of a child. Among the charges they COULD have found them guilty of were child abuse and culpable negligence. This jury chose, instead, to let them all go free. Clearly the least of what they should have found them guilty of, was child abuse. It is NOT acceptable to hit or kick a child. If any parent did this in their home, they would be charged with child abuse and the child could be taken away from them.

On March 27, 2007, Martin Anderson's family was awarded 2.43 million dollars in a wrongful death suit. On May 2, 2007 The legislature passed a claims bill to pay Martin Anderson's family $5 million dollars. On May 23, 2007 Governer Charlie Crist signed the $5 million dollar claim bill for Martin Anderson's family. Is there any amount of money that is going to make up for the death of this child, is there any amount of money that is going to lesson the pain his family is going through and now the slap in the face that the jury has given them by finding these people not guilty? Is there any amount of money that will bring them back their son? 

If it were one of their children of the people responsible for the death of Martin Anderson, or one of the children of the any jury member, they would probably feel different. Shame on them all for allowing this happen with no punishment to those who did it.

Links to other sites about Martin Lee Anderson

Martin Lee Anderson
Justice For Martin
A Life Cut Short