An all-white jury in Florida found seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse not guilty in the death of a 14-year-old black inmate Friday. The trial took three weeks. It took the jury 90 minutes to decide to acquit.
A 30 minute video, which shows the guards beating the boy, who had collapsed after running laps, while a nurse looked on, wasn’t enough for the jury. Medical examiners for each side told different stories — the defense said the boy died from a pre-existing medical condition and the prosecution said the boy did not die of natural causes. Not long after the verdict was announced Friday, federal prosecutors announced they would investigate the case further.
Since jurors on Friday acquitted them of manslaughter charges, federal prosecutors likely would have to try another tactic, such as seeking an indictment alleging obstruction of justice, legal experts said.
“It’s too early to say that the final chapter has been written with respect to the criminal justice system in this case,” said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami.
Florida civil rights leaders called for federal charges hours after a jury took 90 minutes to exonerate the eight in state court in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14.
By Friday evening, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee announced they were reviewing the state’s prosecution.
It’s part Rodney King, part A Few Good Men, and all bad. Our justice system is really on a roll these days.
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I’ve seen this footage and I have to look away each time. How many men does it take to beat down a 14 year-old boy?? The cops were black and white so this is about abuse of power and murder if you ask me. I think the defense said the boy died of complications of sickle cell. Really? And when did he get those complications?? Maybe while he was getting his life stomped out of him?!?
If you commit a crime you must be punished by the laws of this land, but no where does it state you must be beaten like an animal or tortured. The men and women who run this country have no moral high ground to stand on when they travel around the world talking about spreading freedom, democracy and justice. Start at home!
I read the article. The boy wasn’t beaten to death. The boy died because the guards suffocated him by forcing him to inhale ammonia, and his sickle cell trait (a condition that prevents the red blood cells from absorbing as much oxygen as it can) mixed with the suffocation killed him. It frustrates me that the jury acquitted the officers because the jurors were probably thinking if Martin Anderson wasn’t such a unruly, black young male, then he wouldn’t have been treated that way. It doesn’t matter if he was juvenile with a disobedience problem, the matter is that he still died in the hands of the people who were trying to correct him.
When did it become acceptable behavior to beat and kill a kid? He’s 14 years old. He looks small. Since when is it acceptable to do this to anyone, let alone a kid? The “justice” system might be terrible, but God is not blind.
The footage shows him being hit. I didn’t know about the ammonia. Doesn’t change my argument/opinion though.
Never mind, I was wrong. The sickle cell trait alone doesn’t lead to death. The trait would only be trouble for the children he won’t have. It’s ridiculous how the defense used the sickle cell trait as evidence when it’s clearly not.
“The trait would only be trouble for the children he won’t have.”
At first I started to laugh, but realized that it’s not a joke. That’s the reality.
The coroner who diagnosed “death from complications caused by sickle cell” didn’t even have a medical license! Two weeks before he autopsied Martin Lee Anderson, he issued an autopsy report stating that a WOMAN had “unremarkable testicles”. The legitimate medical community immediately discounted the idea that sickle-cell trait could cause a person to suffocate.
This bothers me. Everytime I look at Martin’s elementary school picture, I always think of my younger brother.
Absurd. Atleast the feds are like “Hell Naw”. What the hell was this jury thinking, its coming to a point where if your up for jury duty you need to be screened mentally. Its obvious that jurors arent taking their duty serious. How can you let this walk and sleep at night?
There’s a very disturbing disconnect that people feel exists between themselves and those who have committed crimes. My fiance is a Sheriff and he says some of his colleagues treat the inmates like animals (if I told you some of the stories of what some of the Sheriffs do to the inmates, you’d think I was lying). He says that they no longer see the inmates as human. I think a lot of regular folks view criminals similarly. Which makes it easier for a jury to overlook a death or a wrong doing to a prisoner. In some people’s minds a criminal or an inmate is somehow less that human and therefore less then deserving of due process, but more deserving of getting whatever comes to him/her - like a beat down.
less than human
less than deserving
LOL.