“In sorrow, we mourn those lost. In gratitude, we embrace those around us. In sympathy, we reach out to those who grieve.”
On this date, August
31, 1984, Kermit Alexander’s mother, sister and two nephews, ages 8 and 13,
were murdered in South Central Los Angeles during a home invasion by members of
the Rollin 60’s Neighborhood Crips, whose intended victims lived two doors
away.
To Kermit and Tami
Alexander, we will not forget your loved ones who were slain. We will support
you by endorsing ‘Californians for Death Penalty Reform and Savings’.
We will remember your
loved ones every year on August 31 and we will pray that California will fix the death penalty.
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://deathpenaltyreform.com/stories/kermit-and-tami-alexander/
Kermit
and Tami Alexander
Kermit’s mother,
sister, and two nephews were murdered on August 31st, 1984. Here is his story.
Talking about the Death Penalty is not
an easy topic to discuss. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived in a perfect
world where we didn’t have to worry about protecting our family and loved ones
from evil. But we do! As many of our friends and family know, Kermit’s
mother, sister and two nephews were murdered in 1984 in a home invasion murder
for hire. An 18 year old rolling 60′s Crips gang member, Tiqueon Cox,
entered the home of Kermit’s mother, Ebora, and shot her in the head while she
was drinking her morning cup of coffee. He then entered the back bedroom
and executed Kermit’s 24 year old sister, Dietra, while still sleeping in her
bed and then shot his two nephews 8 and 12 while they slept near by. The
trigger man was hired to carry out an execution. He went to the wrong
house killing Kermit’s family in error.
The man that committed that murder has
been on death row for over 27 years. He will celebrate another birthday
on December 1st. He has exhausted all of his appeals on both the state
and federal levels. The only barrier to justice at this point is
California’s failure to hold this killer accountable.
The State of California promised the
citizens and the victims that this man’s crimes met the criteria necessary to
impose death. The jury found him guilty of his crime and backed the
recommendation for execution. The judge sentenced this killer to die in
California’s death chamber and yet, he still waits to receive an execution
date.
While on death row, this killer has
continued to operate as a shot caller being classified the most dangerous man
on death row. In 2001, Tiqueon Cox attempted a violent takeover of the
Super Max Adjustment Center at San Quentin. His goal was not to escape
but to “kill as many guards as possible.” He is also responsible for repeated
assaults on fellow inmates and correctional officers.
As with many on death row, Tiqueon
Cox, is the perfect example of the need to have a death penalty. What
greater sentence could there be for a guy who walks into a grandmother’s house
and executes her and her family, by mistake, for a mere $3500. His
disregard for human life and values both before and during prison is
justification for setting an execution date. It is sad that the victims
must continue to fight for their right to see justice.
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Kermit's 24-year-old sister, Dietra, and his
nephews, 8-year-old Damon and 13-year-old Damani, were in the wrong place at
the wrong time. [PHOTO SOURCE: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=100513/KermitAlexander]
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-nfl-star-kermit-alexander-sues-have-familys-killer-executed-n307436
Ex-NFL Star
Kermit Alexander Sues to Have Family's Killer Executed
by
Feb 25 2015, 11:13 pm ET
Former NFL star Kermit Alexander was
so full of rage after gang members murdered his mother, sister and two nephews
in 1984 that he prowled the streets of Los Angeles at night, bent on finding
the culprits and exacting vengeance.
The ex-athlete — who was a first-round
draft pick in 1963 and spent 10 years in the pros — says the only reason he
didn't become a killer himself is because then-Mayor Tom Bradley made him
promise to give up his hunt and let the legal process run its course.
The police eventually did find the
gunman, who was convicted and sentenced to death. But three decades later,
Tiequon Cox is still alive, along with 750 other California killers whose
executions are bogged down in endless litigation and political opposition. No
other state has more inmates on death row.
"It galls me," Alexander said. "The people of California have said over and over again
that they want this kind of punishment for the worst criminals."
So Alexander, 74, decided that once
again, he would take matters into his own hands — this time with a lawsuit
demanding the state put in place an execution protocol and end Cox's life with
a lethal injection.
Earlier this month, he notched a
victory when a Superior Court judge ruled he had standing to bring the action,
paving the way for a hearing on the merits of the unusual suit in the coming
weeks.
"I don't like people
getting in the way of the rule of law," he said.
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Kermit Alexander
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Across the country, capital punishment
is in a shambles. Drug makers have refused to sell their wares to prisons,
which have turned to controversial compounding pharmacies and untested chemical
cocktails to fill their syringes.
There were issues with at least three
2014 executions, including the botched lethal injection of an Oklahoma man who
woke up mid-procedure. The Justice Department is reviewing, and now the U.S.
Supreme Court has decided to weigh in.
California has been spared these
recent problems. Voters approved the death penalty in 1978, but the state
executed just 13 murderers before a federal judge halted lethal injections in
2006, finding the three-drug combo could cause excruciating pain.
The state has failed to come up with a
one-drug injection, and last year another federal judge ruled that delays that
keep prisoners in limbo for years violate the constitutional protection against
cruel and unusual punishment.
The governor, Jerry Brown, opposes the
death penalty, as does the state attorney general, Kamala Harris. A 2012
referendum to repeal capital punishment, Proposition 34, failed, but by a
narrow margin.
"There are a lot of hurdles that
have to be overcome in California before they can execute anyone," said
Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center.
That gnaws at Alexander, who says his
whole life changed the instant he got the call that his loved ones had been
shot execution-style by a blundering hitman who targeted the wrong house in the
tough Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.
Alexander — whose memoir, "Valley
of the Shadow of Death," will be published in September — grew up in Watts
and became a football star at UCLA. He went on to play for the '49ers, the Rams
and the Eagles.
At the time of the murders, he was 44
years old, raising children, retired as the president of the NFL Players
Association. His son and his brother — he's one of 11 kids — were playing
football together at his alma mater and he had just nailed down a gig as a
color commentator for the Bruins.
"Life was good," he said.
His mother, Ebora Alexander, was still
living in Watts. She was sitting at her kitchen table, drinking coffee in her
nightgown and slippers, when two members of the Rollin' 60 Crips stormed in and
shot her in the head.
Her 23-year-old daughter, Dietra, was
shot between the eyes while she sat up in bed and screamed. Two grandchildren,
8-year-old Damon Bonner and 10-year-old Damani Garner, were asleep when the
assassin put bullets in their head.
"It changed everything. It took
me from a peace-loving person to being a prospective killer," said
Alexander, who had to identify the bodies. "One of the reasons I was able
to set aside my vengeance was that the rule of law was supposed to
prevail."
It took two months for police to
arrest Cox, who was sentenced to death in 1986. His accomplices are serving
life without parole.
Alexander said he ended up in an
emotional prison for years. His first marriage fell apart, he lost his job and
got into debt. He met another woman, Tami Clark, but his bottled-up demons
drove them apart after a decade.
Adrift for several years, Alexander
eventually returned to Tami, who by then had decided to adopt an orphan from
Haiti. After the 2010 quake, they brought the little boy, and his four siblings,
home to Riverside, California.
Raising five kids gave Alexander a new
outlook, but there was still unfinished business from the past.
In 2012, Kermit and Tami campaigned
against Proposition 34, which would have repealed the death penalty and been
applied retroactively to Cox and the hundreds of others on death row. Through
their activism they met Kent Scheidigger of the Criminal Justice Legal
Foundation, which supports capital punishment.
Last November, Scheidigger filed a
lawsuit on behalf of Alexander and a man whose whose sister was raped and
murdered, arguing they have been denied justice because the state has failed to
carry out the convicts' sentences.
The attorney general's office
countered that the victims' relatives didn't have standing to bring the action,
but the judge disagreed. The next step is for the court to decide whether to
compel the state to come up with new lethal-injection standards.
A spokesman for the California
Department of Correction and Rehabilitation said he could not comment on
pending litigation but gave a general statement about the death-penalty delays:
"At the governor's direction,
CDCR has been developing proposed regulations for a single-drug protocol in
order to ensure that California's laws on capital punishment are upheld.
However, nationwide, there is a problem with access to execution drugs and that
is complicating efforts."
The attorneys who handled Cox's
appeals did not return requests for comment, and his family could not be
reached for comment. In his appeals, he argued that he was not the actual
killer and was manipulated into participating. His trial lawyers presented not
opening or closing statement, focusing instead on trying to convince the jury
to spare his life in the penalty phase.
Capital-punishment opponents have
argued that death sentences don't bring closure for victims' relatives, but
prolong their agony for years or even decades, substituting revenge for
resolution.
Alexander said he doesn't see it that
way. If California had not had the death penalty in 1984 and Cox had been
sentenced to life without parole, he would have accepted that. What he can't
accept, he said, is the idea that the hired gun won't face the punishment a
jury of his peers thought he deserved.
"It's not about the
revenge,"
he said. "It's about the law."
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