Who is Amber McLaughlin? First transgender woman to be executed in U.S.

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Aleks Phillips

By Aleks Phillips

U.S. News Reporter

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Amber McLaughlin on Tuesday is expected to become the first transgender woman to be executed in the U.S. The 49-year-old is scheduled to die by lethal injection after being convicted of first-degree murder in 2006.

Despite a request for clemency, Missouri Governor Mike Parson confirmed Tuesday morning that the execution would take place.

"McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Ms Guenther," Parson said in a statement. "McLaughlin is a violent criminal. Ms Guenther's family and loved ones deserve peace."

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McLaughlin was found to have killed her former girlfriend in 2003 while identifying as Scott McLaughlin, the name under which she was tried.

Amber McLaughlin transgender execution

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There is no known prior case of a transgender inmate being executed in the U.S., according to Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-execution organization.

McLaughlin began a relationship with Beverly Guenther in 2002. It ended in the spring of 2003, according to a summary of events by Missouri Supreme Court. On October 27, 2003, McLaughlin was arrested and charged with breaking into Guenther's home, which led to a restraining order.

However, on November 20 of that year, McLaughlin was found to have driven to Guenther's office waiting for her to finish work. State prosecutors argued that physical evidence, including blood splatters found in the parking lot, suggested McLaughlin had forced Guenther to the ground and raped her, before stabbing her repeatedly. The body was then dragged to McLaughlin's car and placed in the back of it.

McLaughlin was said to have left the corpse in the underbrush of the Mississippi River. The following day, she cleaned the inside of her car with bleach, before becoming increasingly nervous and asking a friend to take her to hospital concerning a mental disorder.

The police were informed and McLaughlin was arrested on arrival. She was convicted of first-degree murder, rape and armed criminal action, but jurors could not unanimously agree on the punishment. A judge then sentenced McLaughlin to death.

McLaughlin appealed the conviction and the death penalty but was denied by the Missouri Supreme Court. Although a new sentencing hearing was ordered in 2016, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McLaughlin has been transitioning to a woman for the past few years while being held in Potosi Correctional Center, a male prison, in Washington County, Missouri.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson

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McLaughlin had an abusive childhood, according to testimony during her murder trial. The child of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, she was taken into a series of foster homes until, at age 5, she was adopted by the McLaughlins, who also took custody of two siblings.

McLaughlin's adoptive father was a police office and was said to beat the children with a paddle and a nightstick, as well as use his taser on them. The adoptive parents would also lock cabinets so the children could not access food and, according to a clemency request filed last December, cited by the Associated Press, would rub feces in her face.

A young McLaughlin and her childhood friends referred to the home as "the house of horrors," the court was told.

McLaughlin's mental health issues began to show when she was a young boy. At age 9, she was found to have a low IQ of 82 and was diagnosed with ADHD. An elementary school counsellor wrote of McLaughlin at age 8 that her psychological situation was "extremely serious."

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