Amber McLaughlin becomes the first transgender woman to be executed in the US

• Amber McLaughlin died by lethal injection on Tuesday.
• Missouri’s governor refused her clemency request.
• McLaughlin is the first transgender woman to be executed in the US.

Amber McLaughlin died by lethal injection on Tuesday, becoming the first transgender woman to be executed in the US. Amber McLaughlin was executed for the murder of her ex-girlfriend in 2003. According to Fox 2, the prisoner sent her last statement to DC on January 1 and apologized for her crime.

“I’m sorry for what I did. I am a loving and caring person,” McLaughlin wrote before she was executed by the Missouri Department of Corrections. The death was carried out by lethal injection at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center of Bonne Terre, in Missouri.

Did Amber McLaughlin have one last hope?

Before being executed, McLaughlin and her lawyer had been hoping Missouri Governor Mike Parson would spare her life. This hope faded after he denied her pardon and sealed her fate.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Parson would not stop the execution of Amber McLaughlin, 49, who was on death row for stalking an ex-girlfriend and stabbing her to death nearly 20 years ago, The Associated Press reported.

A forceful answer?

In the press release issued by Governor Parson, he specified that the sentence is upheld to comply with Missouri law. He highlighted McLaughlin’s crime, which includes the rape and murder of her former girlfriend in 2003. He refused her request for clemency.

“McLaughlin’s conviction and sentence stand after multiple and lengthy examinations of Missouri law. McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Guenther. McLaughlin is a violent criminal. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The state of Missouri will execute McLaughlin’s sentence in compliance with the Court’s order,» Parson said in the statement, according to EFE.

The first execution of a transgender person?

An anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center database shows that 1,558 people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the mid-1970s. All but 17 of them were men, and the center said there are no known previous cases in which an openly transgender inmate has been executed, the AP reported.

A leniency petition filed by her attorneys cited McLaughlin’s mental health issues and traumatic childhood, which the jury never heard of at her trial, The Associated Press reported. The request was also denied in recent days and for this reason, the lawyers tried to obtain a response from Parson.

What was Amber McLaughlin convicted of?

In 2003, well before her transition, McLaughlin was in a relationship with Beverly Guenther. After they stopped dating, McLaughlin would show up at the suburban St. Louis office where Guenther worked, sometimes hiding inside the building, according to court records.

Initially, Guenther obtained a restraining order, and police officers would sometimes escort her to her car after work. Guenther’s neighbors called the police on the night of November 20, 2003, when she did not return home. Officers went to the office building, where they found a broken knife handle near her car and a trail of blood, the AP reported. Filed Under: Execution Amber McLaughlin

Amber McLaughlin’s crime

One day after Guenther’s disappearance, McLaughlin led police to a location near the Mississippi River in St. Louis, where the body had been dumped. Amber, who went by Scott McLaughlin at the time, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2006, according to The Associated Press.

A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death after a jury deadlocked on the sentencing. Komp said Missouri and Indiana are the only states that allow a judge, rather than a jury, to sentence someone to death, the AP reported. Filed Under: Execution Amber McLaughlin