Some Oklahoma City bombing families fight for McVeigh's life

McVeigh is scheduled to be executed May 16

Father says executing bomber 'will not bring my little girl back'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Right up until May 16, the day convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to take his last breath, Bud Welch says he will fight to stop the execution of the man who took his only daughter in the Oklahoma City blast.

Death penalty opponent Welch lost his daughter Julie Marie in the April 19, 1995, bombing and says that killing McVeigh will only deepen his pain.

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"I'm not going to find any healing by taking Tim McVeigh out of his cage to kill him. It will not bring my little girl back," Welch said in an interview.

"I don't know exactly how I will feel the day that McVeigh dies. But I'm satisfied that I have done everything humanly possible that I can to stop his execution. I'll feel good that I tried but that I just fell short," he added.

Welch is on the board of the group Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, whose members preach forgiveness.

While some relatives of those killed in the bombing have been lobbying to witness McVeigh die, Welch and others have been crisscrossing the country to convince people that executions interfere with the healing process.

In the months after his daughter's death, Welch admits he wanted to see McVeigh "fry," but then came to see the death penalty as nothing more than revenge and hate -- the very reason why Julie Marie and 167 others died.

Welch plans to hold a vigil near Terre Haute prison in Indiana on the day McVeigh is killed by lethal injection.

"I won't be holding a sign or anything like that outside the prison. I have to respect those who believe what is happening on May 16 is correct, but I just don't agree with them," he said.

Welch understands why many of the Oklahoma City survivors are critical of his views but he says more and more of them have changed their minds.

"We are all on a different timetable. It took me almost a year and others will take even longer to realize that Tim McVeigh is not part of the healing process."

Critics decry 'cheerleading' for death penalty

Renny Cushing from Hampton, New Hampshire, lost his father in 1988 when he was killed by a local police officer with a long-standing grudge against him.

As executive director of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, Cushing is startled by what he calls the "pervasive cheerleading" in America for the death penalty.

Cushing says most family members of homicide victims have three basic needs -- to know the truth, to have the killer held accountable and to be allowed to heal in their own time.

Executions, he said, impeded the healing process, partly because of the "carnival-like" atmosphere surrounding them and also because they focused on the offender and not the victim.

"What the death penalty has done is contributed to making Timothy McVeigh an anti-hero. Everyone knows who McVeigh was but few could name any of the victims of his dastardly attack.

"For those of us who know the pain of the graveyard, filling up another coffin does not bring any comfort."

Victims' families say they are discriminated against by prosecutors who do not respect their opposition to the death penalty, implying they do not love their dead relatives if they do not push for the ultimate punishment.

Florida hairdresser SueZann Bosler's father, the Rev. Billy Bosler, was killed in a brutal attack, in which she was also stabbed. She fought through three trials to get her father's killer sentenced to life rather than be sentenced to death.

"I had to scratch tooth-and-nail to get up there and say what I wanted. I felt if I was going to help the government plan his murder then I would also be a premeditated murderer. I wanted to be a forgiving person, not vengeful," she said.

Some survivors even seek meetings with the murderers, as has Texan Linda White, whose 26-year-old daughter Kathy was abducted, raped and killed in 1986.

"I'm looking forward to telling him that he isn't the focus of my bitterness and that we wish him well and want to see him reformed," said White, who now counsels offenders in prison and expects soon to meet her daughter's killer.

Azim Khamisa from California, whose 19-year-old son Tariq was murdered by a 14-year-old gang member while delivering pizzas one night in 1996 in San Diego, reached out to the family of his son's killer and formed a foundation in his slain son's name to fight against youth violence.

"My attitude is that forgiveness is a surer way to peace than an eye for an eye. The more we role-model the death penalty, the more violence and revenge there will be," Khamisa said.

But he understands why people from Oklahoma want to see McVeigh killed. "I know the pain of losing a child. It's like having a nuclear bomb detonate inside your body, breaking you into millions of small pieces that can never be found. This violence scars the soul forever."

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Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Oklahoma State Government
Death Penalty Information Center
U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons

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