An openly transgender woman is set to be executed for the first time in US history unless Missouri Governor Mike Parson grants clemency, Amber McLaughlin will die by lethal injection for killing her former girlfriend.
McLaughlin’s lawyer, Larry Komp, said there are no court appeals pending.
Amber is expected to receive the lethal injection in the Midwestern state of Missouri on Tuesday.
Her lawyers submitted an application for executive clemency to the governor on December 12, urging him to change the death penalty to a life sentence, noting that Amber was not given the death penalty in a trial by jury.
On Monday, the governor’s spokesperson, Kelli Jones, said the request is still being reviewed.
Before she transitioned, Amber, 49, was in a relationship with Beverly Guenther.
When their relationship turned sour, McLaughlin began stalking her then-girlfriend and showing up to her place of work, sometimes hiding inside her building, court records said.
McLaughlin killed Guenther on November 20, 2003, and was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2006.
A court in 2016 ordered a new sentencing hearing, but a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.
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There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the US before, according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center.
A clemency request on behalf of McLaughlin highlights her traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard during her trial.
A foster parent rubbed faeces in her face as a toddler and her adoptive father used a stun gun on her, according to the petition, which also states she suffers from depression and has made several suicide attempts.
The petition also includes reports citing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a condition that causes anguish and other symptoms as a result of a disparity between a person’s gender identity and their assigned sex at birth.
“We think Amber has demonstrated incredible courage because I can tell you there’s a lot of hate when it comes to that issue,” her attorney, Larry Komp, said Monday.
The clemency request submitted to the Missouri governor also noted that McLaughlin was not given a death penalty by the jury but it was instead decided by a St Louis County judge.
As the application states, Missouri is one of only two US states, along with Indiana, that allows trial judges to impose death penalty sentences in the event of a deadlocked jury.
