A bit about me - I am a black American woman, in my mid-20s, and a death penalty opponent. I used to support the death penalty before I knew too much about it, but after spending thousands of hours of research on the topic, I now oppose it. I believe that the death penalty should be abolished worldwide as soon as possible for numerous reasons. I don't believe any execution is justified. I am also a Christian, and I believe that everybody is worthy of forgiveness, that nobody is completely irredeemable, and that everybody is the sum of more than their worst moments. I believe that the vengeful, arbitrary, capricious way the death penalty is administered in the United States goes against my religious beliefs, as well as my beliefs in racial equality and class consciousness.

I have added the graves of some people who have been executed in the United States (and, for a few of them, some of their family members if I happen to run into information on those as well). I have also added the graves of murder victims and other crime victims who did not yet have memorials. I try to only add graves of people for whom I am able to find CONCLUSIVE and EXPLICIT information on their burial places, like a mention in a newspaper, a cemetery or other location named on their death certificate, or any mention of their body being submitted to a state anatomical board or cremated. If I do add one with uncertain burial information, it is almost always because I have incomplete information after extensive research and am still researching to receive more complete/conclusive info; in a few cases, I have created "burial details unknown" memorials for people who were never given the opportunity to be respectfully laid to rest, like victims of lynching and other racial terror crimes. (Many of those people had their bodies left in random public areas where their families were forbidden from claiming them to give them a proper, dignified burial. For many of them, it would be impossible to locate their remains today. I personally think those people should have memorials here as well.)

I understand that the majority of the men and women whose graves I have added lived controversial lives on Earth and have hurt countless people, but all I ask is that they receive respect in their afterlives, and no hatred or anger, if at all possible.

If you want to add flowers, feel free - but please remember that a lot of these inmates have surviving family members who are suffering from their own loss, and they very well may see what you say about their loved one. Please think about them before you add a flower that may be insensitive, graphic, or hurtful.

Also remember this before you leave a hurtful message: the person you are angriest with is dead. They will not see you calling them a bad name or celebrating their execution. The only people your words will hurt are their surviving loved ones, and their loved ones have undoubtedly been through enough public pain and controversy. Please choose empathy instead.

Last message about hurtful flowers - I will report hurtful rule-breaking flowers as I find them. It will not bode well for your account.

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****PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING, AS OF JAN 1, 2024****

[1] IF YOU ARE RELATED TO ANY OF THESE PEOPLE, and you have **ANY** problem with me making a memorial for them (or you have a problem with ANY individual aspect of a memorial), I will be more than happy to remove or alter anything you desire - including the entire memorial, if that's what you want. Likewise, if I add anything (i.e. a picture) to a preexisting memorial I don't manage, but you would like me to remove my addition, please reach out and let me know, and I will remove it as soon as possible upon seeing the message with your request. I want to respect not only the inmates and victims, but their families and descendants as well. I don't want anything I do on this website to cause ANYONE any further pain.

[2] Related to #1, I am 100% open to transferring a memorial to family members of the deceased, or other friends, loved ones, or acquaintances linked to the deceased. Just message me, and I am more than happy to accommodate. In fact, my personal wish is to be able to transfer every memorial I create to a family member or loved one. I know how much it means to a lot of family members to have that, and I would never want to take that away from people here. (Please note that if you are NOT a relative but you have a special interest in a specific person's case or situation, you are free to contact me, and we can discuss a prospective transfer. I am very flexible when it comes to transfers and have gladly transferred to passionate and dedicated non-relatives several times before, but I do want to make sure you have good intentions.)

[3] When I add a memorial for anyone, I would STRONGLY prefer that you not add newspaper clippings that contain any contentious, controversial, graphic, or potentially upsetting information. If you want to to add an obituary, I would prefer that you include entirely neutral obituaries (like obituaries that strictly provide the name, age, surviving family members, and/or funeral/burial information) that make no mention of how any victims and/or inmates died. A lot of the clippings that go into detail about the crime feel disrespectful to the families involved on both sides of each respective case, especially given that some include racial, inflammatory, and other controversial language, and some include graphic, disturbing, and violent details about how a crime victim died. (Also please understand that if other users add pictures to any of the memorials I manage, I unfortunately cannot remove them. I can only remove pictures that I added myself. You will have to contact the users who added the offending pictures to make any requests of them. If you cannot make those requests [i.e. the users have messages disabled, or they ignore or refuse to oblige your requests], I am happy to help you contact Find-a-Grave Support staff to accommodate your request. If you would like, I will gladly contact them on your behalf; I have done that to help families with similar requests in the past, and I don't mind it at all! Just reach out; I'm here to help!)

[4] I also slightly prefer to not see mugshots added (as I prefer candid photos, family photos, press conference photos, etc.), but I don't feel nearly as strongly about that as I do about the newspaper clippings. After all, I understand that mugshots are the only surviving images depicting some people. If you do want to add a mugshot, I would STRONGLY prefer that, if possible, you crop out any information that makes it look like a mugshot (i.e. the placard/identification board).

[5] As a continuation of [3], this rule does not pertain to me because I WILL change anything asked of me. But there are other people on this website who will NOT change aspects of memorials that you or your loved ones find hurtful (like removing hurtful photos, biographies, comments, etc). If you find yourself in that position – if you reach out to someone asking them to change an aspect of the memorial that you find harmful, and they do not respond or refuse to make the change – I encourage you to contact the Find-A-Grave administrators via email, by messaging [support @ find a grave . com] (without any of the spaces or brackets), to see if they can resolve the issue. I can personally attest that their administrative/support team has been very friendly and responsive with me on the occasions where I have brought issues with other memorials to their attention.

[6] I am strongly opposed to most usages of AI, and I have not and will never use it to write anything I contribute to Find-a-Grave. Unless I specify I have found and recorded info from obituaries or other newspaper articles, all biographies I write are 100% in my own words. On the topic of AI, please do not add AI-created, AI-colorized, or AI-enhanced pictures or photos to any of my memorials. I have seen a few AI pictures on more than enough memorials (usually to colorize an old black-and-white photograph or enhance DPI/quality), and those pictures are always uncanny and unpleasant to me. (I'm pretty sure AI pictures are against Find-a-Grave's rules anyway.)

If you have any other concerns not covered above, please feel free to reach out with a message. I usually respond within 1-2 days. I apologize in advance if it takes any longer.

Lots of love,

- K :)