Oak Bluffs - President Clinton heard a preacher yesterday plea for forgiveness for the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and declare the death penalty to be against Christian teachings.
"I invite you to look at a picture of Timothy McVeigh and then forgive him. I have, and I ask you to do so," said the Rev John Miller, at a service on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, attended by Mr Clinton and his wife, Hillary.
Mr Miller, a prison chaplain for the state of Rhode Island, said the US's death penalty is not in keeping with Jesus's teachings
Mr Miller said McVeigh's crimes were so extreme that it forced him to rethink his own views against the death penalty. He said he was still against it, but recognised it was hard for people to be against capital punishment because "it requires that we forgive the murderer."
"Considering what he did, that may be a formidable task, but it is the one that we as Christians are asked to do."