Missouri may be the first state to execute a transgender woman in the United States, unless the state governor grants clemency, according to reports.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, is a transgender woman and is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday after being found guilty of killing an ex-girlfriend in 2003.
Amber McLaughlin was convicted of first degree murder for killing her girlfriend in 2003. McLaughlin was tried as Scott McLaughlin and did not transition until after conviction.
(Jeremy S. Weis/Federal Office of the Public Defender via AP, File)
McLaughlin was tried as Scott McLaughlin and did not transition until after he was sentenced to prison.
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The Associated Press reported that McLaughlin was in a relationship with Beverly Guenther, 45, before the transition and would sometimes appear at an office in St. Louis where Guenther worked.
On occasion, McLaughlin hid inside the building, according to court records, leading Guenther to obtain a restraining order.
Governor Mike Parson
(Jacob Moscovitch/Getty Images/File)
Police officers sometimes escorted Guenther to his vehicle after work.
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On the night of November 20, 2003, Guenther’s neighbors called police after she did not return home, the AP reported.
Officers went to the office where Guenther worked and found a broken knife handle near his car and a trail of blood. The next day, McLaughlin showed the police where Guenther’s body had been dumped in the Mississippi River.
McLaughlin was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder in 2006 and sentenced to death after a jury deadlocked on the sentencing, the AP reported. In 2016, a court ordered a new sentencing hearing, but in 2021, the federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is reviewing the clemency request, which a spokesman for the governor told the AP is still ongoing.
(Jacob Moscovitch/Getty Images/File)
With no appeals pending, McLaughlin’s attorney, Larry Komp, told the AP that leniency is being sought.
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The clemency petition focuses not primarily on McLaughlin’s gender identity, but rather on childhood trauma and mental health issues that never came before a jury during the trial.
The AP reported that the clemency petition claims that when McLaughlin was with a foster parent as a child, that person rubbed feces in her face. On another occasion, her adoptive father used a Taser on her, per her request.
The petition also claims that McLaughlin suffers from depression and attempted suicide multiple times.
A stretcher is shown in the execution chamber of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
When it comes to McLaughlin’s gender identity, the petition addresses a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which is a condition that can cause distress as a person struggles between their assigned sex at birth and their gender identity, she reported. PA.
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“We think Amber has shown incredible courage because I can tell you there’s a lot of hate when it comes to that issue,” Komp told the AP on Monday. But he added that she is not the focus of the leniency request.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is reviewing the clemency request, which a spokesman for the governor told the AP is still ongoing.
The Death Penalty Information Center, according to AP, said there are no known cases of a transgender inmate being executed in the US.
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This is also the first use of the death penalty in the state for a woman since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to US House members Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver, who urged Parson to grant clemency.
Before 1976, the only woman executed in the state was Bonnie B. Heady, the AP said. She was executed in a gas chamber on December 18, 1953 for kidnapping and killing a 6-year-old boy.
