Over Death Friends of Slain Student Urge Protection for Women By Patricia Gabbett JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Despite a steady rain, more than 100 people mostly women marched through Southeast Albuquerque Tuesday evening to show their anger and grief for slain University of New Mexico student Althea Oakeley. "Having this many people here shows how deeply everyone is affected," said Jane Caputi, who helped organize the march and rally. Oakeley, 21, was stabbed to death June 22 while walking home from UNM. A small crowd, armed with umbrellas and raingear, gathered at the UNM duck pond for a march that followed the same path Oakeley took the night she was killed. Friends, university students, faculty and neighborhood residents organized the event because "it's too overwhelmingly awful that a woman doesn't have the freedom to walk down the street without her life being taken from her," said Caputi, an American Studies professor who worked with Oakeley. As police officers escorted marchers south on Yale, down Stadium and south to Buena Vista SE, where Oakeley lived, residents came out to watch. Marchers handed them yellow fliers showing a police sketch of the stabbing suspect who remains at large. Others tacked sketches to trees and fences. At the stabbing site, organizers set up a microphone and invited marchers to speak. Caputi called for an end to "the climate of acceptance of violence against women." "We want to tell the police that we are an extremely vigilant community. We want this murder solved," Caputi said. "We demand the university as well as the municipality take responsibility for our safety." Caputi then read the names of many women who have been slain in Albuquerque and other cities. Oakeley's parents were first to speak. "Young ladies and young men have a right to walk the streets without fear of violence," said her father, Jim Oakeley. He encouraged marchers and neighbors to call police with any information on his daughter's murder. One speaker pointed out that no city councilors attended the rally. Mary Martinez, whose son, Brian Martinez, was slain in 1986, berated District Attorney Steve Schiff for his "failure to prosecute habitual offenders." She encouraged ralliers to vote for candidates who take a tough stance against criminals. One man said he "can't take the blame, but I have to take responsibility" for violence against women, and said he had talked with his wife about whether she should buy a gun. Marchers passed a hat to start a reward fund for information leading to the arrest of Oakeley's killer.