We applaud Baltimore City Council Member Belinda Conaway.
She introduced a resolution Monday requesting the Baltimore police open the investigation of the death of Robert Clay, a businessman and community activist.
The state Medical Examiner?s Office ruled that his death in May 2005 was a suicide, but evidence suggests otherwise. And friends and family say Clay never would have killed himself.
Forensics experts The Examiner asked to review the case say the fact that the bullet that killed him cannot be found and that he supposedly shot himself with his left hand when he was right-handed makes homicide a possibility.
Shortly before his death Clay complained about how the city awarded minority contracts, claiming that those who won them used minority front men to hide majority-white staffs.
Surely the millions at stake with those contracts could provide a motive to kill him?
People have been murdered for much less.
We think you would agree that answering the open questions surrounding his death would not hurt. At the very least it would assure the public that justice is the main motive for closing the case, and give his family and friends the chance to move on with their lives.
A date has not yet been set to vote on the City Council resolution. But Commissioner Leonard Hamm can show leadership by opening it now.
