Missouri executes transgender woman Amber McLaughlin
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.
