BILL COTTERELL /Democrat Tallahassee attorney Ben Crump speaks at a news conference Friday with Gina Jones, mother of Martin Lee Anderson, and state Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee.

Improving training and operating standards for juvenile boot camps with an act named for Martin Lee Anderson would be a fitting memorial to the teenager who died after his videotaped beating at a Bay County boot camp, members of the legislative black caucus said Friday.

The lawmakers also announced plans for two events focusing public attention on the events of Jan. 5, when guards kneed and punched the boy. Florida A&M and Florida State University students have organized a forum on the case Wednesday, and a mass rally is set for April 21 in the Capitol courtyard.

"It is very important for us," said Wilson, who is closely identified with children's causes. "It is a tradition when tragedies happen in the state of Florida, as a reminder - so we do not make the same mistakes again."

She cited the Rilya Wilson Act, named for a 5-year-old girl who vanished from foster care, and the Jessica Lunsford Act, passed last year to improve registration and tracking of sexual predators. With new standards for boot camps, Wilson said, whenever public officials deal with juvenile-justice issues, "all of us will think of Martin and how he suffered and how people over the whole state fought for justice."

The boy was punched and kneed by guards and died the next day. A medical examiner ruled his death caused by sickle-cell trait, but the body was exhumed and results of a second autopsy have not been released.

Gov. Jeb Bush has appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober to investigate. Ober brought in his local sheriff, replacing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, after the Miami Herald disclosed e-mails FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell sent to Bay County officials, promising that the tape of the incident would not be released.

Tunnell, a former Bay County sheriff, apologized for the e-mail exchange.

The House-passed bill replaces boot camps with a program called STAR - for "Sheriff's Training And Respect" - and creates a Juvenile Justice Accountability Commission to evaluate programs. It requires the Department of Juvenile Justice to set uniform standards for use of force and restraint.

Boot-camp employees would have to be certified in "protective-reaction response" before working with young people, under the bill.

"This is even larger than Martin, although we certainly are sorry for what happened to him," Richardson said. "We want to make sure that any child who is entrusted to the care of the state of Florida in whatever capacity - in our prison system, our juvenile justice system, our mental-health institutions ... will not be battered or not be abused in state care."

Black caucus members changed the number on posters they are maintaining, marking 92 days since the boy's death.

"Still, after 92 days, there is no justice. Why is there no justice?" Wilson asked. "Because there is so much corruption and cover-up in the whole situation."

The legislators said students and fraternities organized the public forum on the case at FSU's Moore Auditorium for Wednesday evening. They said the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton have been invited to speak at the mass rally in the Capitol courtyard April 21.

Contact Bill Cotterell at
(850) 671-6545 or bcotterell@tallahassee.com.