Bud Welch, who lost his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing, faced a small group of local residents with strong views on the death penalty in an Amnesty International lecture last night.

Mr. Welch has travelled across the US since his daughter's death, advocating the abolition of the death penalty. He spoke with Timothy McVeigh's father, Bill McVeigh and told him that he does not want the Federal Building bomber put to death.

Mr. Welch, a mild mannered man talked about his daughter Julie Marie and her love of languages since she was in the eighth grade to the time of her death when she was working as an interpreter on the first floor of the Murrah Federal Building.

He then spoke about the first time he saw Bill McVeigh on television and how he could see "deep pain in a father's eye''. "I knew then, '' Mr. Welch said, "that I had to tell him that I knew how he felt and that I did not want to see his son die.'' While Mr. Welch has met with Bill McVeigh, he admitted that he still feels resentment toward Timothy McVeigh and said he doesn't think he really wants to meet him.

Seeking to spread his feelings of compassion and hope Mr. Welch answered questions from death penalty advocates and asked them what killing the killer would really achieve.

He pointed out that in the US, DNA evidence is proving many death row inmates innocent and advised that removing the law from the books would at least ensure that no innocent people were killed.

Countering the argument that it costs the tax payer too much money to keep a prisoner incarcerated, Mr. Welch drew on US statistics when he told those gathered, that a death row prisoner is five and a half times more expensive than a life without parole prisoner.

Pointing to a recent case in the US, Mr. Welch noted that it cost 14 million dollars to keep a prisoner on death row for 17 years compared with $680 thousand if he was a life without parole prisoner.

Learning that in Bermuda it costs $40,000 to keep a person in prison for a year, Mr. Welch pointed out that would cover full tuition at the very best Universities and Colleges in America.

Admitting he would kill to defend his family and Country, and that he would trade in Timothy McVeigh's life if it would bring his daughter Julie back, left death penalty advocates at the meeting confused.

Things became a bit clearer for them when Mr. Welch explained the real purpose of his visit. "My only purpose for being here is to bring about discussion on the death penalty. By opening up discussion perhaps it will be removed from the books.''