US (Washington Insider Magazine) – Time is almost up and Amber McLaughlin could become the first transgender in the country to star in capital punishment. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office is still reportedly reviewing the clemency request.
First Transgender in US
Unless Missouri Gov. Mike Parson grants clemency, Amber McLaughlin, 49, will become the first transgender woman to be executed in the United States, who is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for killing an ex-girlfriend in 2003.
Pending a response to a last-minute clemency request, McLaughlin would be executed after being found guilty of first-degree murder in 2006.
A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death, and despite a court ordering a new sentencing hearing in 2016, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.
The clemency petition centers on several issues, including McLaughlin’s traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard at his trial. A foster father rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her foster father used a stun gun, according to her clemency petition. She says that she suffers from depression and attempted suicide several times.
The petition also includes reports citing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a condition that causes distress and other symptoms resulting from a disparity between a person’s gender identity and the sex assigned to them at birth.
“We believe that Amber has shown incredible courage because I can tell you there is a lot of hate when it comes to that issue,” her attorney, Larry Komp, said Monday. But, he said, McLaughlin’s sexual identity “is not the primary focus” of the leniency request.
Parson’s spokeswoman, Kelli Jones, said the leniency application review process is still ongoing.
To date, there is no known case of a transgender inmate who has been executed before in the United States, according to the Anti-Execution Center for Information Against the Death Penalty.
Additionally, the only woman to be executed in Missouri was Bonnie B. Heady, executed on December 18, 1953 for kidnapping and killing a 6-year-old boy.
Nationwide, 18 people were executed in 2022, including two in Missouri. Kevin Johnson, 37, was executed on November 29 for ambushing and killing a Kirkwood, Missouri police officer. Carman Deck was executed in May for killing James and Zelma Long during a burglary at his home in De Soto, Missouri.
Another Missouri inmate, Leonard Taylor, is scheduled to die on February 7 for killing his girlfriend and his three young children.
This article is authored by Armando Hernández.
