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Father of bombing victim speaks against death penalty
More articles on this topic: Death PenaltyBud Welch had always been against the death penalty, but he was never an activist until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing killed his only daughter, Julie Marie, among 167 other people.
When she died, Welch said he wanted Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two men later convicted for the deadly bombing, “fried.”
“I didn’t even want a trial,” Welch said.
But after months of depending on alcohol and three packs of cigarettes a day to endure the painful ordeal, Welch changed his mind, realizing he wanted answers from the men.
Welch, who speaks against the death penalty around the country and also abroad, spoke of his daughter and his stance on the death penalty on Friday at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Welch’s presentation, held in the Nebraska Union, was sponsored by UNL’s Amnesty International as part of “Know Your Rights” week.
In the decade since his daughter’s death, Welch’s pride for the 23-year-old woman has grown. The father-daughter duo had a close relationship, Welch said.
“Julie and I met every Wednesday for lunch at a Greek restaurant across from her workplace,” Welch said. “We were supposed to meet for lunch as usual on April 19, 1995, when the bombing occurred … But she never made it.”
Ten months after the bombing, Welch went to the same restaurant he and his daughter once frequented. By then, both McVeigh and Nichols were arrested and on trial.
“It was 3 p.m.,” Welch said. “I had this horrible headache from last night’s drinking. I was looking at the bombed site across the restaurant. I asked myself, ‘What do I need to do? Do I need convictions or executions?’ Then I realized the feeling that I had at that time was revenge and hate, the emotions that caused the bombing.”
During his trial, McVeigh said the bombing in Oklahoma City was to avenge the 1993 deaths of 80 people who died when federal agents raided a building belonging to the Branch Davidians, a religious group in Waco, Texas.
In August 1994, Julie Marie Welch began work as an interpreter for the Social Security Administration in Oklahoma City. That April morning, Julie had walked to the waiting room to meet a client when the bomb detonated at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Julie helped Welch affirm his stance against the death penalty, even though she was not there.
“I remember one day, we were driving,” Welch said. “We heard some news about an execution in Texas. And Julie turned to me and said, ‘Dad, all these Texans do is teach the children to hate.’ So I knew if she were there for me, she would have supported me.”
Welch started traveling across the country speaking against the controversial punishment in the American criminal justice system.
He did lots of interviews with the media, spoke in front of students at many colleges and wrote articles speaking against killing the man who killed his daughter, “the light of his life.”
But the most life-changing experience came when Welch met Bill McVeigh, the father of Timothy McVeigh, three years after the bombing. Welch first saw the elder McVeigh on a TV interview and could feel the sorrow of another father who was suffering because of his child.
“I wanted to tell (Bill McVeigh) that I really cared for him and understood what he was going through,” Welch said.
Welch went to New York to see McVeigh in his home in a meeting arranged by Sister Helen Prejean.
“I saw these family photos on the wall and kept looking at Tim’s photo. I knew I had to say something about it. So I said, ‘What a good-looking kid!’ Then Jen (McVeigh’s sister) dropped her eyes, and Bill said, ‘That’s Tim’s high school graduation picture.’ A big tear rolled out of his right eye, and at that moment I saw in a father’s eyes a love for his son that was absolutely incredible.”
Welch said the visit did something for him he never expected.
“I felt this tremendous burden out of my shoulders … I am not really a religious person. But at that time, I felt really close to God,” Welch said.
When he is not a speaker against the death penalty, Welch runs a service station in Oklahoma.
He told audience members his reason as to why the death penalty is not the answer for the victims and their families.
“Some of the victims’ families still communicate with Nichols (who was sentenced to life imprisonment),” Welch said. “They tell me this helped them a lot. But I can’t do that with Tim McVeigh. This retributive justice blocks healing.”
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