On January 5, 2006, fourteen-year-old Martin Lee Anderson entered the Bay County Sheriff’s Office juvenile boot camp in Panama City, Florida. Less than twenty-four hours later, he was dead.
This episode of Unsealed investigates the cover-up that followed Anderson’s death: a surveillance tape hidden from the public, a medical examiner’s questionable ruling of “natural causes,” and high-level officials who worked to protect the system instead of a child. When the video finally became public, outrage swept Florida—students staged sit-ins at Governor Jeb Bush’s office, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton joined protests in Tallahassee, and lawmakers were forced to act.
Seven guards and a nurse were indicted for aggravated manslaughter, but in a stunning 2007 trial they were all acquitted after just 90 minutes of jury deliberation. Martin’s family received over $7 million in settlements, and his case prompted the Legislature to abolish all of Florida’s juvenile boot camps under the Martin Lee Anderson Act, replacing them with less militaristic STAR programs.
Nearly two decades later, Martin’s death remains one of Florida’s most notorious examples of how secrecy, conflicts of interest, and institutional loyalty can bury the truth—unless citizens demand transparency.
