Tabler asks state to kill him Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 2 2008 01:44 AM By Justin Cox
Killeen Daily Herald

Richard Tabler has politely asked to die.

Tabler, 30, of Killeen, admitted to killing four people during a spree during Thanksgiving weekend in 2004 and was sentenced to death last year. On Tuesday, he appeared in front of 264th District Court Judge Martha Trudo and asked that his further appeals be blocked.

He asked the same in a letter to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, politely volunteering for execution.

"Greetings and peace be unto you!" he wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 11. "I've spoken with my appeal attorneys and they've advised me that they don't believe it's their job to notify the courts that I'd like to waive my rights to habeas corpus proceeding and volunteer for execution.

"I wish to drop all my appeals and get an execution date."

Tabler will have to wait awhile, however, First Assistant District Attorney Murff Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe said Wednesday that the process likely will take several months while officials evaluate the case. But an execution date could come in the next few months as the process moves forward.

Tabler was found guilty March 21 last year of capital murder in the Nov. 26, 2004, shooting deaths of Haitham Zayed, 28, and Mohamid-Amine Rahmouni, 25, and had confessed to police two days later that he also killed Amanda Benefield, 16, and Tiffany Dotson, 18, on Nov. 28.

Prosecutors presented evidence of Tabler's culpability in the murder of the two teenage girls during the sentencing phase of the trial.

Tabler had only one appeal to date, the one that is automatic any time a death penalty is given.

Contact Justin Cox at jcox@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7568.