When 14 year old Martin Lee Anderson arrived at Bay County juvenile Boot camp for a joyriding offense, he had no idea that he’d soon receive the death penalty. Unfortunately, seven prison guards and a nurse had other plans for him. After beating, torturing, and ultimately killing the young man, the group organized a sophisticated cover-up tat extends to the highest level of the criminal (in)justice system.

Anderson was in his first day at the camp where had had been sent as punishment for a probation violation Jan. 5 when he complained of breathing  difficulties during exercises as part of the entry process into the facility. He collapsed and died after being hospitalized. The guards said in an incident report that they had used the ammonia capsules to keep Anderson conscious. The guards’ story was supported by an autopsy that determined that Anderson, 14, had died from complications from sickle cell trait, a blood disorder.

Fortunately, Anderson’s family was smart enough to know that something was rotten in the State of Florida.

Instead of accepting the idea that their son died of natural causes, the family insisted that a conspiracy was taking place. Of course, such suspicions, when uttered by poor Black and Brown people, would normally be ridiculed, dismissed, or altogether ignored. This time, however, a videotape emerged that brought the truth to the surface.

Footage from the tape substantiated the family’s claims of foul play. On the tape, the guards were shown beating Anderson as they held him down. After the tape emerged, an exhumation of the body was ordered. A second autopsy conducted by a different doctor –the first still sticks by his initial finding—showed that Anderson died by suffocation at the hands of sheriff’s officials who had shoved ammonia capsules up the boy’s nose, blocked the boy’s mouth, and forced him to inhale ammonia that caused his vocal cords to spasm, blocking his airway.

Last night, formal charges were finally filed against the guards and nurse.