BUD WELCH

JOURNEY PARTICIPANT:  

TENNESSEE, MISSOURI, FLORIDA AND EUROPE

ABOLITIONIST OF THE YEAR: NCADP 1999

“I was opposed to the death penalty all my life until my daughter Julie Marie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.  For many months after the bombing I could have killed Timothy McVeigh myself.  Temporary insanity is real, and I have lived it.  You can’t think of enough adjectives to describe the rage, revenge, and hate I felt.  But after time, I was able to examine my conscience, and I realized that if McVeigh is put to death, it won’t help me in the healing process.  People talk about executions bringing closure.   But how can there be closure when my little girl is never coming back.  I finally realized that the death penalty is all about revenge and hate, and revenge and hate are why Julie Marie and 167 others are dead.” 

Bud Welch                  

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Profile:

In April 1995, Bud Welch’s 23 year old daughter was killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  In the months after her death, he changed from supporting the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh to taking a public stand against it.  His change of heart was inspired in part by Julie Marie herself.   Once, while listening to a radio report on an execution in Texas, she had turned to him and said, “Dad, that makes me sick.  All those Texans are doing is teaching all the children down there to hate.  The murderer did wrong, but now the government has stooped to his level.” 

Bud eventually arranged to meet with Timothy McVeigh’s father, Bill.  “I saw a deep pain in a father’s eye, but also an incredible love for his son.”  Bud says, “I was able to tell him that I truly understood the pain that he was going through, and that he – as I – was a victim of what happened in Oklahoma City.”

Reprinted with permission from Not In Our Name: Murder Victims Families Speak Out Against the Death Penalty, a publication of Murder Victims Families For Reconciliation, Barbara Hood & Rachel King, Editors; MVFR

THE JOURNEY'S FAVORITE BUD SITES:

BIOGRAPHY OF BUD WELCH

THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 

Forgiveness:  Parade Magazine -- By David Wallenchinski

FIGHTING TO SAVE LIVES: THE ORACLE  BY RYAN MEEHAN

CAMPAIGN FOR FORGIVENESS RESEARCH

JOURNEY TOWARDS FORGIVENESS

WHY FORGIVE ?

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING:TWO FATHER AND FORGIVENESS

DAD FINDS SOLACE IN MERCY NOT REVENGE

THE PURE WATER GAZETTE PROUDLY CONFERS ITS HERO AWARD

REVENGE AND HATE IS WHAT RESULTED IN THE DEATH OF 167 PEOPLE

AMNESTY INT'L CONVENES US ACTIVISTS FOR DEBATE ON JUSTICE INSTEAD OF VENGEANCE

CITIZENS FOR THE FAIR TREATMENT OF VICTIMS

HOMICIDE SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

BUD WELCH STATEMENT ON THE EXECUTION OF TIMOTHY MCVEIGH

A LONG HEALING PROCESS by Stephen Gawlik

MCVEIGH EXECUTION STAYED UNTIL?

BUD WELCH WITH JOURNEY COFOUNDER SUEZANN BOSLER

                                                                                   
1.                                                                  2.                                                                  3.

1.BUD,  KATHY AND BILL WITH  ABOLITION MOVIN' 
2. BUD IN FRANCE WITH JOURNEY 
3. BUD ON FLORIDA JOURNEY

     
Bud and Bill at MVFR meeting in Chicago    Bud at National Press Club with Amnesty

Julie Marie Welch   
September 12, 1971-April 19, 1995

And he will send out His angels with a trumpet blast, And they will gather His elect from the four winds, From one end of the heavens to the other.  Matthew 24:31

Julie, your life has inspired us all