The first transgender woman in American history will be executed today.
Unless Missouri governor Mike Parson grants clemency, Amber McLaughlin will die by lethal injection for killing her ex-girlfriend in 2003.
Before transgender, the 49-year-old man was in a relationship with his girlfriend Beverly Guenther.
But when things went awry, according to court records, McLaughlin began tracking Ms. Guenther to the office where she worked and sometimes hid inside, killing her in November 2003.
She was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2006 and sentenced to death.
A court in 2016 ordered a trial of the new sentence, but a federal appeals court panel restored the death penalty in 2021.
The request for clemency on behalf of McLaughlin focuses on a number of issues, including her traumatic childhood and mental health issues, that the jury never heard from during her trial. .
According to the petition, her adoptive parents rubbed her face with feces when she was a toddler and her adoptive father stuns her with a gun.
It said she was depressed and had attempted suicide several times.
The petition also includes reports citing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a condition that causes distress and other symptoms caused by a discrepancy between a person’s gender identity and the sex they are identified with. indicated at their birth.
McLaughlin’s attorney, Larry Komp, said: “We think Amber showed incredible courage because I can tell you there’s a lot of hate when it comes to that matter.”
However, he added, McLaughlin’s gender identity was “not the main focus” of the clemency request.
There are no known transgender prisoners made in the US Previously, according to the Information Center Against Death Penalty.
A friend in prison, Jessica Hicklin, says she saw McLaughlin’s personality blossom during her transition.
Despite being confined together for about a decade, she said that McLaughlin was so shy that they rarely interacted with each other. But when McLaughlin began her transition about three years ago, she turned to Hicklin for guidance on issues like mental health counseling and help to keep her safe inside. male-dominated maximum security prison.
“Definitely a vulnerable person,” Hicklin said. “Definitely fear of being attacked or victimized, which is more common among transgender people in the Department of Corrections.”
The only woman ever executed in Missouri is Bonnie Heady, executed in 1953 for the kidnapping and murder of a six-year-old boy.
Heady was executed in the gas chamber, alongside another kidnapper and murderer, Carl Austin Hall.
Nationwide, 18 people have been executed by 2022, including two in Missouri.
Kevin Johnson, 37, was executed for ambushing a Missouri police officer. Carman Deck was executed in May for killing James and Zelma Long during a robbery at their home in De Soto, Missouri.
Another Missouri inmate, Leonard Taylor, is expected to die in February for killing his girlfriend and her three young children.
