By Isabelle Wilson-
U.S transgender woman, Amber McLaughlin(pictured), will become the first openly transgender woman executed in the U.S., Missouri Governor, Mike Parson, has confirmed. She is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for killing a former girlfriend in 2003.
A transgender woman is a person who was born a male, but now lives as a woman due to gender dysphoria (a feeling of being born in the wrong body.
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They typically begin their gender confirmation journey with hormone (estrogen) therapy and supportive counselling and often undergo surgery to complete their transition process.
The only woman ever executed in Missouri was Bonnie Heady, put to death in 1953, for kidnapping and killing a six-year-old boy.
Heady was executed in a gas chamber, side by side with the other kidnapper and killer, Carl Austin Hall.
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Parson announced that the execution of the 49 year old would proceed as planned in a statement issued by the governor’s office, which rejected a request to grant clemency that was submitted by McLaughlin’s attorneys last month.
The death penalty was imposed on McLaughlin by a trial judge after the jury reached a deadlocked on a punitive measure for the guilty verdict of murder.
A court in 2016 ordered a new sentencing hearing, but a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.
Most death-penalty states require a unanimous jury vote for death, but Missouri law states that a nonunanimous jury vote is a hung jury, which can trigger the “statutory provision that allowed McLaughlin’s trial judge to independently impose sentence,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
A federal district court judge vacated McLaughlin’s death sentence in 2016 based on the lack of mental health evidence, but the decision was reversed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declined to commute McLaughlin’s sentence.
“McLaughlin’s conviction and sentence remains after multiple, thorough examinations of Missouri law. McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Ms. Guenther. McLaughlin is a violent criminal,” Parson said in a statement Tuesday. “Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peac
“McLaughlin’s conviction and sentence remains after multiple, thorough examinations of Missouri law. McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Ms. Guenther. McLaughlin is a violent criminal,” Parson said. “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.”
An online petition urging Parson to stop the execution had garnered more than 5,500 of its requested 6,400 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
Attorneys submitted an application for executive clemency to the governor on Dec. 12, asking Parson to commute McLaughlin’s sentence to life and noting that she was not given the death penalty in a trial by jury. When the jury deadlocked on punishment during her trial, a St. Louis county judge instead determined McLaughlin’s sentence. As the application states, Missouri is one of only two U.S. states, along with Indiana, that allow trial judges to impose death penalty sentences in the event of a deadlocked jury.
Clemency
The request for clemency was presented on the grounds of supposed mitigating factors, including McLaughlin’s traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which was not presented to the jury during her trial.
Her foster parent is said to have rubbed faeces in her face when she was a toddler, and her adoptive father used a stun gun on her, according to the clemency petition. It adds that she suffers from depression and attempted suicide multiple times.
However, the stated mitigating factors were deemed inexcusable for such a gruesome murder, the case for clemency therefore outrightly rejected.
There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the U.S. according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center.
McLaughlin had been in a relationship with girlfriend Beverly Guenther before she transitioned. McLaughlin sometimes showed up at the suburban St. Louis office where the 45-year-old Guenther worked, sometimes hiding inside the building, according to court records. Guenther obtained a restraining order, and police officers occasionally escorted her to her car after work.
Guenther’s neighbors called police the night she was killed, Nov. 20, 2003, after she failed to return home. Officers went to the office building, where they found a broken knife handle near her car and a trail of blood. A day later, McLaughlin led police to a location near the Mississippi River in St. Louis, where Guenther’s body had been dumped. It was later determined that Guenther had been raped and stabbed to death in St. Louis County.
McLaughlin was convicted of first-degree murder in 2006. A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death after a jury deadlocked on the sentence. A court in 2016 ordered a new sentencing hearing, but a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty in 2021.
Hicklin began transitioning while in prison and in 2016 sued the Missouri Department of Corrections, challenging a policy that prohibited hormone therapy for inmates who weren’t receiving it before being incarcerated. She won the lawsuit in 2018 and became a mentor to other transgender inmates, including McLaughlin.
Though imprisoned together for around a decade, Hicklin said McLaughlin was so shy they rarely interacted. But as McLaughlin began transitioning about three years ago, she turned to Hicklin for guidance on issues such as mental health counseling and getting help to ensure her safety inside a male-dominated maximum-security prison.
“There’s always paperwork and bureaucracy, so I spent time helping her learn to file the right things and talk to the right people,” Hicklin said.
“We would sit down once a week and have what I referred to as girl talk,” Hicklin said. “She always had a smile and a dad joke. If you ever talked to her, it was always with the dad jokes.”
They also discussed the challenges a transgender inmate faces in a male prison — things like how to obtain feminine items, dealing with rude comments, and staying safe.
McLaughlin still had insecurities, especially about her well-being, Hicklin said.
“Definitely a vulnerable person,” Hicklin said. “Definitely afraid of being assaulted or victimized, which is more common for trans folks in Department of Corrections.”
The only woman ever executed in Missouri was Bonnie B. Heady, put to death on Dec. 18, 1953, for kidnapping and killing a 6-year-old boy. Heady was executed in the gas chamber, side by side with the other kidnapper and killer, Carl Austin Hall.
Nationally, 18 people were executed in 2022, including two in Missouri. Kevin Johnson, 37, was put to death Nov. 29 for the ambush killing of a Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer. Carmen Deck was executed in May for killing James and Zelma Long during a robbery at their home in De Soto, Missouri.
Another Missouri inmate, Leonard Taylor, is scheduled to die on Feb. 7 for killing his girlfriend and her three young children.
The family of her victims will frown at the very idea of clemency for such a horrific murder.
All murderers have an excuse of some sort to offer for their inexcusable crime.
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