Brown and White Vol. 108 No. 20

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 109 no 20 friday november 16 2001 all the lehigh news first relay held as symbol of freedom by megan nemeh news writer groups of lehigh students carried american flags high above their heads sunday as they embarked on the freedom relay run • lehigh alumnus jim ryan 78 organized the 32-mile race to coincide with the two-month anniversary of the sept 11 attacks as well as veteran's day ryan came up with the idea of a lehigh valley relay when he heard a news story about a former pilot who lost his mentor in the pentagon attack and orga nized a relay run to go from illinois to new york city i started placing calls to friends and business associates who were able to help out and i worked with local officials to get approval ryan said i started with the traffic divisions of the police and i had to get permits and take out a special events insurance policy ryan who lives in lower saucon wanted to include lehigh grounds in the run i placed a call to athletic director joe sterrett who put me on to dean smeaton who ultimately put me in touch with jenny volchko ryan said volchko associate dean of students worked with meagan meier 05 chair of the world trade center ad hoc committee for the student senate and other senate members to orga nize lehigh's leg of the run volchko said she was extreme ly happy with student response to the event everyone was really enjoy ing what they were doing showing patriotism and spirit volchko said the running club for example had to run a 5k earlier in the morning but they still wanted to take the flag and go the two miles over the mountain they ran their entire leg and then some and one of the runners ran over the bridge and onto city hall that kind of spirit is wonderful to see the race began at approxi mately 8:45 a.m at the dewey fire company in hellertown traveling through the streets of lower saucon township and onto mountaintop campus the lehigh participants handed off their flags to runners on the corner of third and new streets making their way through bethlehem and allentown they finally finished at the war memo rial on seventh and hamilton streets the running club began lehigh's leg of the relay they ran from goodman campus to the intersection of upper sayre drive before handing off the flag to the crew team the crew team then handed it to members of alpha chi omega and kappa alpha anti-death row advocate speaks by marcus powell news writer william nieves a commu nity organizer for the pennsylvania abolitionists united against the death penalty pauadp spoke to a group of 30 people in whitaker laboratory about the harsh and unjust realities of capital punishment tuesday nieves said he is an example of an innocent person who was fortunate enough to prove his innocence and escape death row after being wrongfully con victed i was one of the lucky ones nieves said there are others who are on death row because of misidentification aside from misidentifica tion nieves said there have been 97 individuals released from death row because of prosecutorial or police mis conduct and dna evidence nieves was a victim of prose cutorial misconduct nieves described the horri ble treatment that he received on death row he faced daily harassment and taunts from the correctional officers being kept from his family and living in constant fear of being killed nieves was 29-years-old when he was convicted and sentenced to death row in 1994 his ordeal officially began dec 22 1992 when a young black male was gunned down in front of his house nine months later nieves was identified in a photograph lineup he was unable to offer an alibi for the night of the inci dent because nine months had gone by i don't know was not enough for them nieves said his first trial was held in june of 1994 and lasted two days the prosecution con vinced the jury to convict nieves and sentence him to death after proving that he had been given bad advice by his counsel nieves received another trial the second trial was held in october of 2000 nieves was able to prove that the prosecutor from the previous trial had with held exonerating evidence from tlie court he said that a prosecutor knowingly withholding exoner ating evidence for the sole purpose of landing a conviction is one of the main reasons why states should not be allowed to execute convicts upon his release nieves was given no compensation from his wrongful conviction jim goodley 05 said nieves story opened his eyes if everybody had this information the death penalty wouldn't exist goodley said nieves was brought to lehigh through a joint effort of the chaplain's office pauadp and another anti death penalty organization lehigh valley committee against state killing minority poet reads lectures by randi greenberg news writer more than 40 people attend ed poet marjorie agosin's reading and lecture nov 8 in drown hall during the lecture agosin explained her background and how it influenced her unique style of writing agosin was a descendant of european jews who fled the holocaust and settled in chile during world war 11 b&wphoto by mandy walis her childhood was primari ly spent in chile during the 1960s and 19705 growing up agosin appreciated the bond she had with her heritage and homeland after immigrating to the united states in 1974 agosin was viewed as an out sider since i didn't speak a single word of english i found life in the united states difficult agosin said i was often mistak jewish latino poet and human rights activist marjorie agosin read and discussed selected pieces of her writing in drown hall see agosin page 4 see relay page 4 the undefeated mountain hawks take on the leopards of lafayette at goodman stadium saturday see page 20 sports 17-20 lehigh-lafayette 17 men's soccer 18 crew 20 art exhibit shows life of women and children in afghanistan pakistan and iran see page 3 news 1-4 world news briefs 2 police reports 3 the lehigh-lafayette rivalry used to have many traditions you might not know about see page 5 lifestyle 5-11 in tune 6 look who's talking 9 face in the crowd 11 css kindergarten lasts 3 years in japan source:http://www.uselessfacts.net