Charles Walker wanted to die.

And people on the NIU campus Tuesday wanted his wish to be granted.

Walker was scheduled to die by lethal injection today for the brutal murder of a Southern Illinois couple in 1983. Walker shot the couple and robbed them of $40 and some fishing gear.

Death penalty opponents are urging Gov. James Thompson to grant Walker a stay or to commute the sentence, which would postpone the sentence.

However, Thompson refused on Monday to commute the sentence and the United States Supreme Court was asked to stay the first execution in Illinois in 28 years.

NIU Judcial Office Director Bolles said, “If you take a person’s life under hideous circumstances, you could forfeit your life.” He said criminals like Walker have no fear of losing their own lives and knew their options before the crimes were committed.

Bolles said there must be a deterrent, such as the death penalty, for crimes like murder.

“I have no problem with the death penalty, but I do value human life and there needs to be a deterrent to deal with people who don’t value human life,” he said.

“Walker committed the crime knowing he could forfeit his life,” Bolles said.

Gail Hora, a 22-year-old communicative disorders graduate student, said, “My gut instinct says he should die because he’s done such a horrible thing.”

Jim Clasceri, 21, a management major said, “I think it’s his life, if he wants to die, then let him.”

Leonard B. Mandell, assistant dean for the College of Law, said there are “thousands of people on death row who are not lining up to be executed. Walker doesn’t want any appeals, he is not contesting that he is guilty.”

But Bolles said he understands death penalty opponents’ view on Walker’s execution. “They say there’s no reason to take a human life and I understand their point.”

However, he still supported his original stance that, “there must be a deterrent” for violent crimes.

Mandell said the entire death sentence process should be cut down.

Many prisoners on death row could be there for 10 years or more and many death sentences are postponed, Mandell explained. The death penalty is held to be constitutional, he added.

“The Supreme Court knows its guidelines, it has the right execute people on death row,” he said.

Assuming Walker’s execution was carried through, he was the 139th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court’s 1976 ruling allowing individual states to resume using the death penalty. It will be the first execution in Illinois in 28 years.