Published April 1, 2007

Abolitionist to Headline Banquet
Coalition to Abolish Death Penalty to Gather April 28

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will hold its annual dinner at 6 p.m. April 28 at the Conner Center, Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 3214 N. Lake Avenue.

Keynote speaker will be Bud Welch. On April 19, 1995, Bud Welch’s 23-year-old daughter, Julie, and 167 others were killed in the bomb blast that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City. Welch said he had always opposed the death penalty, but Julie’s death prompted bouts of anger, pain, hatred and revenge. He longed to see Timothy McVeigh (who was eventually tried and convicted of the bombing and  executed) dead.

After months of agony, Welch said he began to question his desires for revenge. He realized that nothing  positive would arise from McVeigh’s execution.

“It was hatred and revenge that made me want to see him dead, and those two things were the very reason that Julie and 167 others were dead,” he says. He also remembered Julie’s comments that executions were only “teaching children to hate.”

Welch spent the next several years speaking out against the death penalty in general and McVeigh’s execution in particular. He met Bill McVeigh, Timothy McVeigh’s father, and the two formed a friendship that is being documented in an upcoming film.

As an ardent abolitionist, he has addressed the Russian Duma, the British and the European parliaments, and universities and groups across Europe.  He has testified twice before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, once in opposition to the habeas corpus reforms that were being proposed and later passed as part of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

He has testified before 22 state legislative bodies including the Illinois Jouse judiciary committee on the state’s death penalty moratorium bill. His speeches at scores of  universities and law schools center on his hard-won stance against the death penalty. He is a board member of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. He was a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation and met with President Clinton at the White House to present the plans for the national memorial.

He has been interviewed by Larry King and Bill Moyers and appeared on “Good Morning America,” the “Today Show,” CBS’s “60 Minutes” and “Dateline NBC.”

He has written pieces for both Time and Newsweek. Profiles of Welch have appeared in numerous magazines including Guideposts and Parade. Welch received the Abolitionist of the Year Award from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

At April’s banquet, the Lifetime Abolitionist Award will be presented to attorney Mark Barrett. Barrett was the attorney for Ron Williamson, who was ultimately exonerated along with Dennis Fritz of the murder of Debra Sue Carter in Ada in 1982.  

Barrett also represented Greg Wilhoit, who was exonerated of murder and spared the death penalty when the state’s “bite mark” experts’ testimony was exposed as false.

The Mary Reynolds Trio and the Harding Fine Arts Academy Chorus will provide music entertainment.  Tickets are $25 per person and $10 for students. All are invited.  

Contact Jim Rowan or Tina Mc-Lemore at 239-2454 for reservations.