Mainers largely went about their business Monday morning as Timothy McVeigh was put to death for blowing up the Oklahoma City federal building, claiming 168 lives six years ago.

There were no large demonstrations across the state. News coverage was carried live on Maine TV stations, but many people already were at work by the time the execution occurred.

Many people across the country supported putting McVeigh to death, but there was little call for reviving the death penalty in Maine, which is one of a dozen states where there is no capital punishment.

When the issue of the death penalty was examined in Maine in 1979, informal polls showed Mainers overwhelmingly supported it. In 1997, when a bill was proposed to return capital punishment here, Mainers were more divided.

“I’m just not supportive of the state killing people,” Gov. Angus King said.

The nation’s first federal execution was carried out in Maine in 1790, when spectators gathered in Portland to see Thomas Bird hanged for murder and piracy. At the time, Maine was part of Massachusetts.

The last execution in Maine was in November 1885, when a British sailor named Daniel Wilkinson was executed for killing a Bath police officer.

Thousands of spectators watched the hanging, which was a horrible affair as Wilkinson dangled alive on the end of the rope for 17 minutes. Disgusted Mainers abolished the death penalty two years later.

Even though McVeigh’s crime was particularly heinous, not all Mainers were supportive of his execution.

“They should put him in prison and let him sit in a cell by himself,” said Doug Bailey of Auburn. “It will give him a lifetime to think about what he’s done. He’s getting the easy way out.”

Androscoggin County District Attorney Norm Croteau said he is not convinced that such executions actually stop crime.

“Philosophy aside, I think that no one is able to conclusively demonstrate whether or not the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime in general,” he said. “Then, philosophically speaking, should the government be in the business of putting people to death? Does that make us better as a society?”

Others believe McVeigh’s execution would give some closure to the people who lost friends and family in Oklahoma City.

“I’m not big on killing people,” said Moe Bolduc of Auburn, who spent a career in law enforcement. “But for the victims that survived and the families that did not, it will give them closure.”