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Family and Friends Mourn Teen on Third Year Anniversary
01/06/09 - 07:15 PM
Diana Bosch
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Panama City, Fla:

Three years after his death family and friends gather to pay tribute to a bay county teenager.

A wreath was placed at the gravesite of Martin Lee Anderson Tuesday remembering the teen who died a day after an altercation with boot camp instructors.

After Anderson’s death the state legislature shut down all juvenile boot camps.

“He had a bright future ahead of him, I could see the potential of him going into sports, he was a smart child, you probably could have seen him out there.”

Davel Russell remembers an energetic young boy with a promising future when he looks at Anderson’s grave, three years later, it doesn’t get any easier.

The 14-year-old boy died after a violent altercation with guards at a Bay County boot camp.

Russell says despite all the controversy surrounding the case, he’s here to remember a life that was cut short.

“It’s unfortunate that when we look at a child based on his race and just assume the worst based on his appearance,  appearance got nothing to do with his heart, he was a good kid.”

But the family still seeks justice. The guards and nurse involved in the case were aquitted by a jury, a jury made up of all white men and women. Reverend Rufus Wood of the Bay County NAACP calls the trial unfair and wrong.

He says they will continue to fight on.

“We’re here to say to Bay County and to the world that three years later we are still standing tall in our pursuit for justice, we have not forgotten and we will not forget.”

Some are still holding out hope for a federal indictment against the seven guards and nurse involved in the case but that all depends on the changes in the justice system that could be made when President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

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