Stephen Janis and Luke Broadwater, The Examiner
2008-05-12 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

For Maria Washington, Mother’s Day once was a time when her son, Giorgio, would take her out to dinner to show how much he cared.

Now, it only serves as a cold reminder, she says, that her son was slain — and her pleas for justice ignored.

Washington, like hundreds of other mothers across Baltimore, marked Sunday not with celebration, but with a strong and painful mix of emotions.

One year after a special report in The Examiner revealed a decade’s worth of troubling statistics depicting more than 1,000 unsolved homicide cases and few lengthy sentences for the killers, the five mothers featured in the report say little has changed.

“I’m still calling, but they won’t call me back,” said Washington, whose son Giorgio, 26, was gunned down on Kenwood Avenue on Dec. 20, 2001. “It makes me feel like they don’t give a damn. I’m wondering if they are really looking for his killer of if they closed this case.”

While the homicide rate has dropped precipitously this year under new Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, the mothers say such statistics bring little solace now on Mother’s Day.

They say they still can’t get answers about their sons’ cases with homicide detectives who won’t return their phone calls.

“My son was always big on Mother’s Day,” Washington said. “He would always take me somewhere and come to the house. It was big thing for him. I feel the loss even worse.”

Rosalind Canada, whose son Robert Russell, 21, was shot in the back of the head on the 2500 block of Garret Avenue in November 2004, said his case remains in limbo.

“They said the detective who had my case is no longer in homicide, and it hasn’t been assigned to anyone else,” she said. “This is a constant reminder that my son’s life wasn’t worth anything.”

The Examiner story revealed that of the 2,479 homicides since 1998, 1,065 remained unsolved. In connection with the 2,479 homicides, 931 people had been convicted. But only 660 — 27 percent of the cases — were sentenced to prison terms longer than 10 years.

The report also revealed that police are 13 percent more likely to make an arrest in a homicide case if the victim is white and 28 percent more likely to make an arrest if the victim is female.

“They have not called me or contacted me,” said June Brown, whose 24-year-old son, Clarence, was slain in 1994. “I’m just one little pea in a pod. They’re not interested. I called, but I never got a call back, which is really sad. They could at least let you know.”

Brown said she thinks of her son on Mother’s Day and every time she eats a meal, because Clarence was known to never miss a dinner.

“We all think about him,” she said. “Whoever killed him, God will take care of them.”

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com