Who was Amber McLaughlin, the first transgender woman executed in the US? Learn about the 2003 incident – WION

On Tuesday evening, the third of February, Missouri witnessed the execution of the first transgender woman in the US, Amber McLaughlin, a 49-year-old openly transgender woman in Missouri for a 2003 murder. This is the first execution of the transmission in the US. Louis. McLaughlin’s fate was signed earlier Tuesday with Republican Gov. Mike denied Parson’s request for leniency.

McLaughlin was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2006 slaying of Beverly Guenther, and a judge sentenced her to death after jurors deadlocked in their verdict. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was denied clemency Tuesday after lawyers expressed concern about his decision.

“McLaughlin is a violent criminal,” Parson said in a statement Tuesday. “Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The state of Missouri will deliver McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order and justice.”

McLaughlin was in a relationship with a woman named Beverly Guenther before her transition into a transgender woman. After they stopped recording, McLaughlin moved to suburban St. It would show Louis’ office, where Guenther worked for 45 years, sometimes hiding inside the building, according to royal records. Guentheri obtained a restraining order, and police officers sometimes escorted her to her car after work.

When Guenther did not return home on November 20, 2003, his neighbors called the police. Officers went to the office building and discovered traces of blood and a broken knife handle near his car. McLaughlin called police to a location near the Mississippi River in St. He took Louis the next day, where he had thrown the body. Authorities alleged that she was kidnapped and repeatedly stabbed with a steak knife.

In 2006, McLaughlin was convicted of first-degree murder. McLaughlin was sentenced to death by the judge after the jury overturned the verdict. According to Komp, Missouri and Indiana are the only states in which a judge can sentence someone to death.

The court ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2016, but a federal appeals court reinstated the death penalty in 2021.

McLaughlin was pronounced dead at 6:51 a.m. at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

McLaughlin spoke quietly with spiritual counsel to her side as the fatal dose of pentobarbital was injected. McLaughlin took two deep breaths, then closed his eyes. A few minutes later she was pronounced dead.

McLaughlin’s request for clemency claimed the jury neglected to care for his mental health. Her clemency booklet includes details of traumatic childhood abuse, such as a foster parent rubbing manure in her face as a toddler and her adoptive father brutalizing her with a gun. He was suffering from sadness, according to the request for clemency.

Gender dysphoria, a condition characterized by anxiety and other symptoms due to the disparity between a person’s gender identity and the sex assigned at birth, is also mentioned in the clemency petition. However, McLaughlin’s sexuality was “not the main focus” of his plea for clemency, according to his attorney, Larry Komp.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” McLaughlin said in a final, written statement. “I am a very loving and caring person.”

McLaughlin began his stint in prison about three years ago, according to fellow inmate and friend, Jessica Hicklin. Hicklin said he rarely spoke to McLaughlin before McLaughlin’s passing, describing his inmate as nervous.

“Definitely a vulnerable person,” Hicklin described McLaughlin. “He’s certainly afraid of being attacked or victimized, which is more common for trans folks in the Department of Corrections.”

According to a database maintained by the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center, 1,558 people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the mid-1970s. 17 Except all those who were killed among them were men. According to the center, there were no prior cases of transgenderism being manifest. McLaughlin began his transition in Potosi State Prison about three years ago.