Amber McLaughlin becomes first publicly trans woman prisoner executed in the US

Authorities in Missouri have pronounced Amber McLaughlin dead after receiving a lethal injection. She is believed to be the first openly trans woman prisoner to have been executed in the US.

McLaughlin, 49, was convicted in 2006 of the murder of Beverly Guenther. McLaughlin died on Tuesday (3 January) evening at 6:51pm at a centre in Bonne Terre according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

There had been a chance that McLaughlin would be spared her execution as she appealed for clemency from Missouri’s Governor, Mike Parson. He denied clemency.

As reported by NBC News Parsons said in a statement on Tuesday: “McLaughlin is a violent criminal. Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The State of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order and deliver justice.”

In a final written statement, McLaughlin wrote: “I am sorry for what I did. I am a loving and caring person.” NBC also reports she spoke with a spiritual advisor before her death.

Her lawyer, Larry Komp, told the Kansas City Star, “Amber confronted her execution with great courage and we take some solace in knowing Amber became her true self in what became her last years.”

McLaughlin, who began transitioning three years ago, was in a relationship with Guenther which ended. After that, she is said to have shown up at her former partner’s workplace multiple times. Guenther eventually secured a restraining order against McLaughlin.

AP reports that after Guenther’s neighbours alerted police that she hadn’t come home on 20 November 2003, police found a broken knife handle and a trail of blood. The next day McLaughlin led police to the site near the Mississippi River, St. Louis where Guenther’s body was dumped. Authorities believe Guenther was raped and stabbed repeatedly.

McLaughlin was sentenced to death in 2006 after a jury reached a deadlock. After another sentencing hearing in 2016, she was again sentenced to death in 2021 by an appeals court.

The clemency petition focused on her childhood and the abuse she suffered at the hands of foster parents. One incident involved her having faeces smeared on her face. In another, her adoptive father used a stun gun on her, AP reports. This information was not disclosed during McLaughlin’s trial.

The petition also referenced Mclaughlin’s depression and diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

An online petition included similar details and described the execution as “unconstitutional,” and “a gross misuse of judicial power”.