Trans woman Amber McLaughlin was executed by lethal injection in Missouri on Jan. 3.
Amber McLaughlin on Tuesday, Jan. 3, became the first openly transgender person executed in the United States when the state of Missouri carried out her sentence of death by lethal injection.
McLaughlin, who was put to death after Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declined a clemency request, spoke quietly with a spiritual adviser at her side as the lethal injection was administered, according to reports by USA Today.
In a written statement before her execution, McLaughlin, 49, said, “I am sorry for what I did. I am a loving and caring person.”
McLaughlin had been convicted in the rape and fatal stabbing of her former girlfriend, Beverly Guenther, 45, on Nov. 20, 2003. The jury at her original trial in 2006 returned a guilty verdict but was deadlocked on her sentence. At that point, the judge in the case stepped in, as allowed by Missouri law, and handed down the death sentence.
A court in 2016 ordered a new sentencing hearing following the presentation of the evidence of McLaughlin’s mental health, but a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.
McLaughlin’s attorneys had filed a petition asking Gov. Mike Parson to commute her sentence to life in prison, noting that their client had suffered chronic trauma throughout her childhood, including brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure, traumatic brain injuries as a child, abuse including being tased and beaten she suffered at her adoptive home, her diagnosed depression and suicide attempts. Evidence of the childhood abuse and the state of her mental health was not presented at the 2006 trial.
Parson, however, denied the last-minute request for clemency — as he has in five other death sentence cases since he took office in June 2018. In a statement in which he deadnamed and misgendered McLaughlin, Parson said, “Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The state of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the court’s order and deliver justice.”
McLaughlin began transitioning about three years ago, according to Jessica Hicklin, her formerly incarcerated mentor.
— Tammye Nash