First brazenly transgender individual executed in US for 2003 homicide of ex-girlfriend

Missouri has executed Amber McLaughlin, 49, for the homicide of her ex-girlfriend in 2003, making it the primary time within the U.S. that an brazenly transgender individual has been executed.

McLaughlin died from deadly injection at 6:51 p.m. Tuesday, the Missouri Division of Corrections stated. “I'm sorry for what I did,” wrote McLaughlin in her closing assertion, which was launched by the division of corrections. “I'm a loving & caring individual.”

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McLaughlin and her attorneys petitioned Republican Gov. Mike Parson for clemency, asking him to commute her demise sentence. The clemency request targeted on a number of points, together with McLaughlin’s traumatic childhood and psychological well being points, which the jury by no means heard in her trial. It says she suffers from melancholy and tried suicide a number of occasions.

The petition additionally included experiences citing a analysis of gender dysphoria, a situation that causes anguish and different signs on account of a disparity between an individual’s gender identification and their assigned intercourse at start.

Nonetheless, Parson's workplace denied the request for clemency, saying in a press release that the household and family members of her sufferer, Beverly Guenther, “deserve peace.”

There was no identified case of an brazenly transgender inmate being executed within the U.S. earlier than, in line with the anti-execution Loss of life Penalty Data Middle.

Earlier than transitioning in jail, McLaughlin was in a relationship with Guenther. McLaughlin would present up on the suburban St. Louis workplace the place the 45-year-old Guenther labored, typically hiding contained in the constructing, in line with court docket information. Guenther obtained a restraining order, and cops often escorted her to her automobile after work.

Guenther’s neighbors known as police the night time of Nov. 20, 2003, when she didn't return dwelling. Officers went to the workplace constructing, the place they discovered a damaged knife deal with close to her automobile and a path of blood. A day later, McLaughlin led police to a location close to the Mississippi River in St. Louis, the place the physique had been dumped.

McLaughlin was convicted of first-degree homicide in 2006. A choose sentenced McLaughlin to demise after a jury deadlocked on the sentence. A court docket in 2016 ordered a brand new sentencing listening to, however a federal appeals court docket panel reinstated the demise penalty in 2021.

Nationally, 18 individuals have been executed in 2022, together with two in Missouri. Kevin Johnson, 37, was put to demise Nov. 29 for the ambush killing of a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer. Carmen Deck was executed in Could for killing James and Zelma Lengthy throughout a theft at their dwelling in De Soto, Missouri.

One other Missouri inmate, Leonard Taylor, is scheduled to die Feb. 7 for killing his girlfriend and her three younger kids.