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| Video footage showed Martin Anderson being beaten Staff in boot camp case walk free |
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Staff in boot camp case walk free
BBC
Sat October 13, 2007
Area: Panama City
Eight defendants have been acquitted of manslaughter in the case of a teenager who died after being punched and kicked at a Florida boot camp.
Martin Lee Anderson, 14, died a day after the beating was administered by guards at the camp in January 2006.
A jury took only 90 minutes to decide the seven instructors and one nurse at the Bay County boot camp in north-west Florida were not guilty of his death.
Video tape shows the teenager being hit and dragged about by the guards.
The video was recorded on the camp surveillance system.
But giving testimony during the trial, two doctors told the court the death was attributable to an undiagnosed blood disorder which the instructors could not have known about.
The defendants testified they had not attacked Anderson, but had followed the rules of the camp, designed to instil discipline into juveniles sent there.
They said they had suspected Anderson of faking illness to avoid exercise.
Camp closures
Martin Lee Anderson's death has already led to the resignation of the head of Florida's Department of Law Enforcement and all juvenile boot camps in the state have since been closed.
The family are to receive $5m to settle civil claims.
Speaking after the not guilty verdict, the family's lawyer told journalists: "You kill a dog, you go to jail - you kill a little black boy and nothing happens."
Had the all-white jury found the eight defendants guilty, they could have faced up to 30 years in jail.
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