By Oyintari Ben
The first transgender execution in the United States took place late Tuesday when a transgender woman found guilty of murder was executed.
According to a statement from the state prison division, Amber McLaughlin, 49, was pronounced dead at the Diagnostic and Correctional Centre in the Missouri town of Bonne Terre soon before 7 p.m. local time.
McLaughlin was reportedly put to death by lethal injection, according to the local TV station Fox2now.
McLaughlin was not only the first person to die by the death penalty in America this year, but also the first transgender person of any sex to be executed in the nation.
Before she transitioned, she was found guilty of killing a previous girlfriend in a St. Louis suburb in 2003.
As a result of McLaughlin’s stalking of the victim, the ex-partner requested a restraining order.
McLaughlin waited for the victim, Beverly Guenther, as she left work on the day of the murder.
Guenther was murdered with a kitchen knife after being sexually assaulted. Her remains were thrown close to the Mississippi River.
A jury in 2006 convicted McLaughlin guilty of murder but couldn’t agree on how to punish her.
The trial judge intervened and handed down the death sentence. Both Indiana and Missouri permit such involvement.
Her attorneys petitioned Governor Mike Parson to commute McLaughlin’s sentence to life in prison, citing the fact that a jury did not find her guilty of capital murder.
Her attorneys stated in their mercy appeal that “the death sentence now being contemplated does not emanate from the conscience of the people — but from a solitary judge.”
Additionally, they contended that McLaughlin experienced mental health problems and had a rough childhood.
High-profile individuals, including two Missouri representatives in the US House of Representatives, Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver, had backed her cause.
They claimed in a letter to the governor that McLaughlin’s adoptive father had beaten and even tasered her with a baton in the past.
She was privately battling gender dysphoria, which is today known as identity issues, in addition to this horrible maltreatment, according to the letter. People with this illness believe their gender identity and sex at birth do not match.
According to press accounts, McLaughlin started transitioning recently but had continued to be housed in the Missouri death row for men.
There has never been a known instance of an openly transgender person being executed in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, which campaigns to end the practice in the country.
According to the organization, the topic has gained increased attention in recent months as a result of the Ohio Supreme Court upholding a transgender woman’s death sentence and Oregon State commuted one.
