Death row inmate seeks to expedite execution



CBS 42 Reporter: Ryan Loyd


Richard Tabler is on death row for the murder of two men, and is 
accused to making threating cell phone calls from prison.
A man who wants to be put to death won’t have his way – just yet. 
Richard Tabler is on death row for killing four people in Bell County 
in 2004 and has repeatedly asked for his appeal to be waived so his 
execution could proceed.

But Appeals Attorney Karl Krug says Tabler won’t get his way until 
two proceedings take place. One of those, a jury trial, is already 
over. But the Court of Criminal Appeals is currently deciding the case.

“So whether he wants to get executed right now is irrelevant,” Krug 
said.

Tabler has used multiple tactics to help seal his own fate. One of 
the most widely publicized was when he used a smuggled cell phone 
from inside his prison cell to call a State Senator from Houston, 
John Whitmire, to make threats against Whitmire’s family. The 
incident prompted Governor Rick Perry to order a lockdown of all 
state prisons.

“The object of those calls is not to intimidate these people, the 
point is to get himself executed as quickly as possible,” Krug said.

He has also written multiple letters to the court system in order to 
waive his appeals processes, as well as threatened several lawyers.

Krug says she is not expediting a death sentence for her client 
faster than what Constitutional Rights allow. “It's not my job to get 
people killed. It's my job to make sure their constitutional rights 
are observed,” says Krug. “It's not about what he wants, it's about 
what society as a whole wants.”

The case has been briefed and argued, and now Tabler’ s fate is up to 
the Criminal Court of appeals to decide. Once a decision is made, a 
death warrant could be issued for Tabler, and an execution would take 
place soon after that.

Attorney Karyl Krug expects that a decision will be made and the 
execution would proceed from there. Tabler will have the right to 
change his mind and proceed with the appeals process as normal.

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