MIAMI (AFP) — Former employees accused of murder for their involvement in the beating a 14-year-old boy who later died at a "boot camp" for troubled youth were acquitted of murder Friday by a Florida court.
Martin Lee Anderson died in January 2006 after he collapsed during forced exercise and was hit by guards at a boot camp for juvenile delinquents in Panama City, Florida.
A video widely broadcast on US television shows the guards punching and kicking Anderson, while a nurse looks on. The guards, apparently realizing the teenager is not faking, eventually try to shove ammonia capsules into his nose in an attempt to revive him.
The seven guards and the nurse, who pleaded not guilty to homicide, were found not guilty and escaped a potential term of 30 years behind bars.
The week-long trial focused largely on the health of the boy, who suffered from sickle cell anemia.
A preliminary autopsy cited his condition as the cause of death, but a second, undertaken after the body was exhumed, found that he had died of asphyxiation.
The Department of Justice said it would "conduct a thorough and independent review of all the evidence, including the state trial transcripts, and take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable violation of federal criminal civil rights statues."
US law however bars the possibility that a person acquitted by a local court can be tried again for the same crime in another court.
"We were innocent all along. We knew the truth would come out," said guard Henry McFadden after the verdict.
The incident caused an uproar and led to the closure of all juvenile boot camps in Florida. The camps aimed at rehabilitating young people who run afoul of the law.
The scandal also led to the resignation of the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who allegedly tried to cover up the incident.
The boy's parents were awarded five million dollars compensation by the state of Florida.
The verdict came a day after a report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office which detailed the sometimes deadly abuse and neglect that takes place at the high-discipline, "tough love" programs.
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