E-Mail This Article to a Friend Unfinished Business For Boston homicides, the case is seldom closed BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN
	More from The Phoenix David S. Bernstein's continuing exposé on the Boston Police Department's homicide unit in the pages of the Boston Phoenix is chronicled here.

Behind the Suffolk Superior Court building in downtown Boston, the city recently established a "Garden of Peace" dedicated to victims of homicides. The landscaping consists of stones bearing the names of the dead.

Unfortunately, too few of those responsible for these murders have been brought to justice inside the courthouse, as the Phoenix documented in August. (See "The Worst Homicide Squad in the Country," News and Features, August 19.) The department’s official clearance rate — investigations that have led to arrest, or closure through other means such as the death of the suspect — was 50 percent in 1998, and has been just 30 percent since the start of 2004. That’s well below the national average of 65 percent.

Here, the Phoenix lists the victim of every homicide investigated by the Boston Police Department since 2001, along with the current status of each case. This is a lot of information to digest. It starts with the date of the murder, followed by the victim’s name, age, race, sex (the majority are black males), the neighborhood in which the murder took place, and the manner in which they were killed. This is followed with information on the current status of the case, based on the following key:

• Manslaughter, 1st degree, 2nd degree = At least one person sentenced for murder or manslaughter (with the most serious conviction listed)

• Awaiting trial = At least one suspect awaiting trial

• Acquitted = All suspects acquitted

• Dropped = Charges dropped against all suspects

• Suspect died = Death by suicide, murder, or police

• Open = No arrest has been made

Numbers indicate the imposed sentence, by minimum and maximum years in prison. Unless otherwise noted, first-degree-murder convictions carry a life sentence, and second-degree-murder convictions carry a life sentence with possibility of parole.

Black includes Cape Verdean.

* In federal court