The first openly transgender woman to be executed in US history, according to a report. According to Sky News, Amber McLaughlin will be executed by lethal injection for the 2003 murder of a former girlfriend. The verdict can be overturned if Missouri Governor Mike Parson shows mercy.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, had a girlfriend named Beverly Guenther before to beginning her transition. Amber McLaughlin started stalking Beverly when the relationship soured. She entered her office and occasionally hid there. According to court records, Amber McLaughlin ultimately killed Beverly Guenther in November 2003.
Amber was convicted of first-degree murder in 2006 and given the death penalty, despite a court ordering a new sentencing hearing in 2016. A panel of a federal appeals court restored the death penalty in 2021. Amber McLaughlin has filed a petition for clemency, asking for mercy due to her difficult childhood and mental health problems.
Her adoptive father allegedly used a stun pistol on her, and the petition alleges that a foster carer wiped faeces in her face when she was a toddler. The petition includes documentation stating a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and claims Amber has gender dysphoria, suffers from despair, and has made numerous suicide attempts.
Amber McLaughlin’s lawyer Larry Komp said as per Sky News, “We think Amber has demonstrated incredible courage because I can tell you there’s a lot of hate when it comes to that issue.”
There has never been a known instance of a transgender prisoner being executed in the US, and Bonnie Heady was the only woman ever executed in Missouri after she murdered a six-year-old kid in 1953.