(The following is provided by Maryland Citizens Against State Executions (MD CASE), the coalition of which LWVMD has been a member since we achieved consensus on repeal, and the subsequent adoption of repeal by LWVUS.)

Tuesday, November 13, 7 p.m. Messiah Lutheran Church, 1025 S. Potomac St., Baltimore, with Bud Welch and David Kaczynski.

Bud Welch “I was opposed to the death penalty all my life until my daughter Julie Marie was killed in the (1995) Oklahoma City bombing,” Bud Welch has said. “For many months after that, 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 have felt. But after time, I was able to examine my conscience and I realized that if McVeigh was put to death, it wouldn’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.” David Kaczynski Capital punishment entered into the life of David Kaczynski in a deeply personal way when in 1995, he and his wife Linda told the FBI that they believed the Unabomber to be David’s brother Ted. Knowing that they could help save lives, David and Linda worked with law enforcement authorities to arrest Ted, who had a history of mental illness. As David tells it, their family’s partnership with the Department of Justice ended when they learned that Ted was going to face a capital trial.