Date Published: October 14, 2007
Prosecutors in the boot camp trial were outnumbered and outgunned by defense attorneys, some legal experts said.
But state attorneys were well armed with evidence, beginning with the video of the Panama City teen being punched, kneed and kicked by drill instructors.
On Friday, seven former drill instructors and a camp nurse were cleared of all charges in the death of Martin Lee Anderson when a Bay County jury returned its not-guilty verdict.
''The tape was horrendous, what more damning evidence could you have?'' asked Tallahassee criminal defense attorney, Don Pumphrey Jr., who attended the trial and watched it on television.
By several accounts, the state's case began to fall apart with jury selection. Defense attorneys knocked off most of the potential black jurors and prosecutors bumped off two from a pool that started with 1,400 potential jurors.
''Jury selection is a critical part,'' said Tallahassee criminal defense attorney, Robert Augustus Harper Jr. ''It's the whole case.''
An all-white jury found the defendants not guilty of felony aggravated manslaughter of a child Friday. The verdict in the racially charged case sparked student protests at the Capitol and demands that federal investigators file civil rights charges.
Three assistant state attorneys - Pam Bondi, Scott Harmon and Michael Sinacore - tried the case against eight Panama City criminal defense attorneys.
Anderson died Jan. 6, 2006, a day after he entered the Bay County boot camp as punishment for violating his probation from taking his grandmother's truck for a joyride. The 14-year-old collapsed while running laps and a security camera showed drill instructors hit, kneed and forced ammonia to his nose while clamping shut his mouth.
Anderson's mother, Gina Jones, had said she didn't want the trial in Bay County, but from the beginning, State Attorney Mark Ober said it would take place there.
''I see no reason to take the case out of Bay County,'' Ober said last year when the charges were announced. Ober was appointed to investigate the case by former Gov. Jeb Bush after the local state attorney recused himself.
Some attorneys said having the trial in conservative Bay County was bad for the prosecution.
''The defense had local witnesses as opposed to outside witnesses, and local experts as opposed to outside experts and a local jury,'' said Tallahassee trial lawyer Henry Hunter. ''They would've done better with a change of venue. The defense had an advantage with the venue.''
The prosecution made the wrong decision to put on two experts who did not completely agree on how Anderson died, some attorneys said, allowing defense attorneys to magnify the difference.
Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Dr. Vernard Adams testified Anderson died from suffocation when the drill instructors gave him ammonia and clamped his mouth shut. A second state witness, Dr. Thomas Andrew, medical examiner for the state of New Hampshire, said Anderson died from a lack of oxygen.
''They were prepared and the defense climbed all over it,'' said Pumphrey, who added that state prosecutors were, ''tactically out maneuvered.''
That was evident in closing arguments when defense attorney Hoot Crawford showed a videotape of mostly state witnesses faltering on their testimony, including Adams saying Anderson's body did show evidence of ''exertional sickling.''
An initial autopsy by Bay County Medical Examiner Charles Siebert concluded Anderson died from natural causes related to the blood disorder sickle-cell trait. Siebert, a defense witness, said Friday that the verdict vindicated his autopsy.
''Mr. (Scott) Harmon never addressed that tape,'' Pumphrey said of the state's rebuttal to Crawford's closing argument. ''I thought that tape was just powerful. How could you not get up and not address your own witness (statement).''
The state argued their case ''poorly,'' Pumphrey said, and he wasn't surprised at the outcome.
''Even if the defense had just rested, I think the jury would've came with the same verdict.''
Stephen D. Price
Tallahassee Democrat
October 14, 2007 Source: Tallahassee Democrat |