---
title: "Oklahoma City Bombing Victim's Father Says Executions are Not Part of the Healing Process"
description: 'Bud Welch, father of Julie Welch who was killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing, recently appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, just a few days before the 15th…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/oklahoma-city-bombing-victims-father-says-executions-are-not-part-of-the-healing-process'
section: news
date: '2010-04-20T19:20:04-04:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:27:58-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

**Bud Welch**, father of Julie Welch who was killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing, recently appeared on **The Rachel Maddow Show**, just a few days before the 15th anniversary of the bombing in Oklahoma. Welch, who is the president of [**Murder Victims' Familes for Human Rights**](http://www.mvfhr.org/), has been a long-time opponent of the death penalty and has said that executions are more often "staged political events" instead of a part of the healing process for victims. When asked how he came to oppose the death pealty for Timothy McVeigh, Welch told Maddow, "I reached that point probably about a year after the bombing - close to a year. All my life, I had always opposed the death penalty. I just thought it was something that society should not be doing. And after Julie‘s death, I was so full of revenge and hate that I had to get retribution in some way. So I was for the death penalty probably for the first year. And after recognizing that killing Tim McVeigh was not part of my healing process, then I was able to move forward." *Read the full transcript of the interview* [*here*](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36645549/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/).

(The Interview, The Rachel Maddow Show, April 16, 2010). See also **[Victims](/victims-and-death-penalty?did=573&scid=62).**