black…MYstory

It took an all-white jury just ninety minutes to wipe away all hopes for justice in the death of Martin Lee Anderson.

Anderson died on January 6, 2006, after being taken off life support. The previous day, he was in an altercation with guards a Florida youth boot camp. Over the course of 30 minutes, seven guards piled on him, beat him and forced him to inhale ammonia capsules in what they say were attempts to revive him. A nurse on staff stood by and watched it all occur. An autopsy performed by a local coroner claimed that he died from a undiagnosed (and, normally, not lethal) sickle cell trait. A second autopsy concluded that he died from being suffocated when guards where covering his mouth while making him inhale ammonia tablets.

Today, a jury acquitted all eight on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child. Reading this article, I couldn’t help but think of Emmit Till’s death, in the respect that it took the jury virtually no time to acquit the accused. It’s hard to believe that any real deliberation went on at all.

But, most telling, was the part about the first coroner’s (the one who attributed his death to sickle cell) reaction to the verdict:

An initial autopsy by Dr. Charles Siebert, the medical examiner for Bay County, found Anderson died of natural causes from sickle cell trait. A second autopsy was ordered and another doctor concluded that the guards suffocated Anderson through their repeated use of ammonia capsules and by covering his mouth.

“I am feeling a little vindicated. People got to see a lot more than what’s been publicized in the media,” said Siebert, who was widely criticized for his autopsy. He said he was going to celebrate with some of the guards. (emphasis mine)

I guess people either lost sight or just didn’t care that a person was killed. However, I want to say that it mattered to me and I hope that we don’t forget that not all is well with race in America and that we have a lot of work to do.

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