Amber McLaughlin, the first transgender person to be executed in the United States
Amber McLaughlin, a transsexual woman, was executed this Tuesday at 6:51 p.m. local time (23:51 GMT) in the United States for a murder committed in 2003, making her the first person in this group to face the death penalty in the country.
McLaughlin, who began her gender transition some three years ago in prison, was given a lethal injection in Missouri last night after Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican, rejected his plea for clemency. “McLaughlin stalked, raped and murdered Guenther,” he added. “McLaughlin is a violent criminal. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace.”
McLaughlin, 49, was convicted of the rape and murder of her ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther in St. Louis County, and her execution will also be the first of the year in the United States. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that opposes the death penalty, there is no other documented case of a trans man or woman executed in the United States.
McLaughlin’s lawyers had made a clemency request to Parson on December 12, begging him to commute the sentence to life prison, emphasizing that the executed woman suffered abuse during childhood, and suffered from an intellectual disability that was never mentioned during the trial. .
“The investigation has recognized McLaughlin’s sincere repentance and so have each and every one of the experts who have evaluated her in the years that have passed since the trial,” highlighted the petition to the governor in which they also stressed that the jury that found her guilty was not unanimous.
“Missouri law considers a non-unanimous jury to be a deadlocked jury, so a rule was used that allows the judge to impose a sentence on his own,” notes the Death Penalty Information Center, while also recall that “the judge relied on aggravating circumstances rejected by the jury to sentence McLaughlin to death.”