Death of Martin Anderson
Martin Lee Anderson was a 14-year-old from Florida who died while incarcerated at a boot camp-style youth detention center, the Bay County Boot Camp, located in Panama City, Florida, and operated by the Bay County Sheriff's Office. Upon arriving at the camp he was forced to run track, and within two hours he became fatigued and stopped. The guards coerced him to continue his run. He returned to the track, collapsed and died a short while later. A portion of the surveillance video depicting the coercion was made public. The incident resulted in the Florida legislature voting to close the state's five juvenile boot camps.
Circumstances
On January 5, 2006, within the first two hours of Anderson's first day at the camp, where he had been committed for stealing his grandmother's car, curfew violation during probation, and theft of candy, camp officials forced him to continue exercising after he had stopped. Drill instructors grabbed Anderson and applied numerous uses of force, including holding Anderson by the arms, take-downs, and pressure point applications. Anderson became unresponsive during this episode, and the guards administered ammonia salts in an attempt to revive him. He died the next day in Pensacola, Florida after his parents elected to remove him from life support.Investigation
An investigation into the teen's death began immediately, as a cooperative effort of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Bay County Sheriff's Department.On February 18, 2006, State Attorney Steve Meadows, whose jurisdiction includes Bay County, appealed to Florida Governor Jeb Bush for the case to be reassigned from his office. In his letter, Meadows admitted "close ties" to FDLE chief Guy Tunnell, who had opened the boot camp where Anderson died while serving as Bay County sheriff.
Bush appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober to oversee the case, which remains open and under his supervision.
On November 28, 2006, authorities announced the arrest of eight people in connection with Anderson's death. Seven guards and a nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a felony. They were all later acquitted of the charges.
On April 16, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that no federal criminal civil rights charges would be filed against the eight people who were originally charged in his death. The press release included the following:
"After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that the evidence was insufficient to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges. Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed."
Two autopsies
As early as January 9, FDLE officials announced that Anderson's autopsy ruled out "trauma or injury" as the cause of his death.The official cause of death was not reported for another five weeks. In mid-February, Bay County Medical Examiner Charles F. Siebert announced that his first autopsy of Anderson determined that the teen died of complications from sickle cell trait, a normally benign and relatively common condition among African Americans.
A Florida statute allows a medical examiner to return a body to the jurisdiction where the incident occurred. Ober cleared Siebert of any wrongdoing in bringing the body back to Bay County.
On March 12, Anderson's body was exhumed and a second autopsy was conducted by the coroner of Hillsborough County, Dr. Vernard Adams. This time, the autopsy was attended by several other forensic pathologists as consultants to Adams. Dr. Michael Baden, New York State Police coroner, attended at the request of Anderson's parents and the NAACP.
Dr. Adams' findings:
The results of the second autopsy were announced by the State Attorney, Marc Ober, on May 6. Adams said that Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards. A lack of oxygen was caused by holding his mouth closed while forcing him to inhale ammonia fumes. The video shows guards holding the capsules in Anderson's face repeatedly.
Controversy and criticism
Many of the major figures in the Anderson investigation have been criticized by Anderson's family, youth advocates, civil-rights and anti-detention groups, as well as state and national media outlets.Immediately after observing Adams' 12-hour autopsy, Baden said, "Preliminary findings indicate the boy did not die from sickle cell trait, nor did he die from natural causes." Baden has said repeatedly that sickle trait by itself does not cause death. He explained a "sickle cell crisis" is a sickle cell disease—not the same as sickle cell trait. By itself, the sickle cell trait is not harmful. People with sickle cell trait can lead perfectly healthy lives. But beyond that, he said, hospital records indicate Anderson's blood was not sickled until the moment at which he started to die.
It has been established, however, that people with sickle cell trait have a four thousand percent increased incidence of sudden death when put in a boot camp environment. The risk of sudden death in boot camp environments for people with sickle trait has long been recognized in military services. Some military services, such as Great Britain, chose to limit activities of people with sickle trait. The US military, in contrast, changed its boot camp procedures to lessen the probability of exertional death. Recent studies have shown that laboratory specimens falsely underestimate the degree of sickling in the blood. Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner said, "Michael Baden saying it does not harm you—considering the literature, he may as well have walked out and said the world is flat." In June 2007 the National Athletic Trainers' Association released a consensus statement noting that approximately 5 percent of exertional deaths in young healthy athletes were from exertional sickling in those with sickle cell trait.
According to Adams, "Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway." Death due to laryngospasm, however, is not listed in standard lists of adverse effects. Dr. Randy Eichner noted in his testimony that such a death had never been recorded in 150 years of use of ammonia spirits. Dr. Adams did not dispute this:
Defense attorney Waylon Graham asked him why he thought the use of ammonia could have killed Anderson when nothing like that has ever been recorded "in the history of the world."
"This is the only place in the world to my knowledge where ammonia capsules were used this way," Adams said. "So no other deaths would have occurred."
This has led a number of forensic pathologists to support Siebert's diagnosis. Steve Meadows, the State Attorney who succeeded Ober, concluded that the criticism of Siebert was politically motivated. When the Medical Examiner Commission voted not to retain Siebert following the expiration of his contract, Meadows appointed Siebert back into the position as temporary Medical Examiner. Meadows stated: "I will not sacrifice Charles Siebert on the altar of political expediency or correctness. Despite what amounts to a reckless character assassination by some media outlets and, regrettably, even some members of our government, I believe Dr. Siebert to be a competent and thorough medical examiner–not beholden to anyone or any cause. Quite simply, Dr. Siebert is a well-qualified doctor doing his best to serve the people of this district. I am certain that Dr. Siebert looks forward to a hearing before an administrative judge and his first opportunity to respond to the allegations upon which the vote for his removal was based."
Medical examiner criticized
Charles F. Siebert, the Bay County medical examiner who performed Anderson's first autopsy and ruled out foul play, faced charges of professional incompetence but ultimately was exonerated. Siebert's critics and the media made much of the 2004 report of an autopsy he performed on 34-year-old Donna Reed, a female who died during Hurricane Ivan, because it noted that Reed's testicles and prostate were "unremarkable".On August 9, 2006, the state Medical Examiners Commission recommended probation, which was not upheld. Originally, a panel from the Commission recommended that Siebert be suspended, after an inquiry discovered that he was negligent in at least 35 of 698 cases reviewed, none of which were on cause or manner of death. While the newspapers used the word "negligent," the Medical Examiners Commission did not in fact accuse him of negligence. The commission decided to retain Siebert until his contract expires June 27, 2007, with the provision that he pay for outside review of his future work.
The National Association of Medical Examiners, concerned that Siebert was being subjected to a "witch hunt", took the unusual step of writing the Medical Examiner Commission to offer its services to remedy the situation. The Medical Examiner Commission did not respond to the NAME letter. On January 15, 2007, NAME followed up with a second statement of its concerns. On January 18, 2007, the Medical Examiner Commission and Siebert reached a negotiated agreement in which the Medical Examiner Commission removed all references to "probation" or "discipline" and Siebert agreed to institute a quality assurance program to look for typographical errors in reports. Siebert was not required to accept the claims of error, and is free to pursue other remedies. In July 2007, Dr. Joseph Prahlow, president of NAME, noted that "consensus nationally, however, is that Siebert is being singled out for political purposes." He said that "the more vocal members of the national society of forensic pathologists support Siebert. He was careful to point out that the most vocal didn't necessarily represent the majority of members, and very few have examined both autopsy reports."
On August 3, 2007, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, retired Chief Medical Examiner for San Antonio and author of two best-selling textbooks of forensic pathology stated that Siebert's conclusions were scientifically valid and that Adams' was not. This was echoed some weeks later by Dr. John Hunsaker, former President of the National Association of Medical Examiners, in a radio interview. Dr. Randy Eichner, team doctor for the University of Oklahoma Sooners and expert on exertional deaths, called Adams' conclusions "fantasy."
In late 2007, the Medical Examiner Commission asked for a delay in Siebert's appeal in order to finish some depositions. This delayed the appeal until after January 1, 2008, and Siebert's contract ended December 28, 2007. The local search committee for a new ME requested a delay in Dr.Siebert's departure in order to allow his appeal to be heard, but the Medical Examiner Commission refused, thus making the appeal impossible; since Siebert was no longer a Medical Examiner, he no longer had standing for an appeal. Dr. Jon Thogmartin, Siebert's primary supporter in the Medical Examiner Commission, was replaced with Dr. Bruce Hyma, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner. Hyma in turn asked that Siebert be allowed his day in court, and was denied. Hyma was also a member of the local search committee for a new District 14 Medical Examiner. The local search committee put Siebert's name in as their recommendation for the position. The Medical Examiner Commission refused to honor that nomination and instead left the position open as of December 29, 2007. In response to this, NAME wrote its third open letter, stating:
"As an organization, we believe that Dr. Siebert has met autopsy standards, and he continues to be a NAME member in good standing. By continuing to imply that Dr. Siebert does not meet the aforementioned nonexistent "NAME guidelines" or the NAME Autopsy Standards, the MEC is dishonestly misrepresenting the facts. Furthermore, as these errors have not been publicly acknowledged by the MEC, the MEC is discrediting not only Dr. Siebert but NAME itself. Since the MEC apparently believes that falsely invoking the imprimatur of the National Association of Medical Examiners in this fashion is acceptable, the Executive Committee of NAME demands that the MEC officially acknowledge and make public retraction of the inconsistencies noted above."...
In light of all that has happened, it appears inappropriate for the MEC to deny the request of the local 14th medical examiner district to defer any further action until Dr. Siebert has been afforded the opportunity through normal proceedings to both defend his findings and refute the allegations against him as due process requires.... Imposing sanctions against a medical examiner without requiring these theories to be tested by an impartial jury jeopardizes the independent judgment of the medical examiner that our system of government has come to rely upon precisely because of its independent objective inquiry. It is ironic that in Dr. Siebert's case the medical examiner has been denied the very protection that his presence in such judicial proceedings is meant to provide.
Similarly, a group of 26 Medical Examiners from across the US and in Australia wrote an open letter to the MEC stating that the Medical Examiner system in Florida had been politically hijacked. They wrote:
Now the commission is attempting to remove Siebert and destroy his credibility. It delayed Siebert's administrative hearing until after the new year, but has refused a request from District 14 to delay the appointment of a medical examiner until after the hearing. It appears that technicalities are acceptable only when the commission uses them.
The commission has also informed the people of District 14 that it will ignore their opinion and choose someone else as chief medical examiner. The commissioners set the meeting to make this decision for Dec. 29, in the middle of the holidays. They have no shame.
This political hijacking of Florida's medical examiner system should be of concern to everyone. Without confidence in the independence of medical examiners, every decision can reasonably be questioned and unreasonably be scrutinized. Medical examiners from every corner of our country have added their names, alarmed about these events and their consequences.
In recommending Siebert for reappointment, the Bay County Board of County Commissioners wrote to the Medical Examiner Commission:
It unfortunately appears to us, and many residents of Bay County, that Dr. Siebert has become a scapegoat for those seeking a political solution to recent events, rather than a logical resolution based upon science and fact. The bottom line is that the good people of Bay County, including those serving on the local search committee, are apparently being ignored in their plea to keep Dr. Siebert as Medical Examiner.