Amber McLaughlin, 49, is the first transgender inmate on death row in American history. She had killed her ex-partner in 2003 before her transformation.
A transgender prisoner sentenced to death is scheduled to be executed for the first time in the United States on Tuesday, January 3rd. Barring clemency from the Missouri governor, Amber McLaughlin, 49, will also become the first person to be executed in the country in 2023. She is to receive a lethal injection for a murder committed before her transformation.
In 2003, the American had killed her ex-companion in a suburb of Saint-Louis, the big city of Missouri. Amber McLaughlin had not supported their breakup and has been harassing her ever since, to the point that her former girlfriend had secured protective measures.
Executed for murdering his ex-partner
But on the day of the crime, Amber McLaughlin awaited her outside work with a kitchen knife and stabbed and raped her before dumping her body near the Mississippi River, according to local media.
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After her trial in 2006, the jury found her guilty of murder but could not reach a verdict. A judge then decided to retain the death penalty. The states of Missouri and Indiana are the only ones that authorize their judges to hand down death sentences if the popular jury does not reach unanimity.
Because of this peculiarity, Amber McLaughlin’s attorneys asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to commute her sentence to life in prison. “The death penalty considered here does not reflect the conscience of the general public, but that of a single judge,” they write in their petition for clemency, which also refers to the difficult childhood and mental illnesses of their client.
Support from several personalities
Her motion received support from several figures, including two Missouri elected representatives in the US Congress, Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver. In a letter addressed to the governor, they recalled the abuse he suffered as a child in his adoptive family. “Alongside this horrific abuse, she has been quietly grappling with issues of gender identity…” they wrote.
According to local press, she began her transformation in recent years but remains on Missouri’s male death row. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), no openly transgender person has yet been executed in the United States, “but the issue has attracted attention in recent months, with the Ohio Supreme Court upholding the death sentence imposed on Victoria Drain and the Transforming Tara Zyst into Oregon, Two Transgender Women”.
Since his election, Governor Mike Parson has not accepted any clemency petitions presented to him.
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