Amber McLaughlin's final words revealed before she became first trans inmate to ... trends now
Amber McLaughlin breathed heavily a few times, uttered her final words and shut her eyes as she was executed on Tuesday, becoming the first transgender woman to be put to death years after she was convicted of killing her ex-girlfriend.
'I am sorry for what I did,' McLaughlin said in a final, written, statement. 'I am a loving and caring person.'
McLaughlin, 49, spoke quietly with a spiritual adviser at her side as the fatal dose of pentobarbital was injected.
The Missouri inmate was convicted of stalking and killing former girlfriend Beverly Guenther, then dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. A jury deadlocked on the sentence, but a judge sentenced McLaughlin to death in 2006.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, who is transgender, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday. McLaughlin is believed to be the first transgender person to be executed. She began to transition three years ago while in prison in Potosi
Beverly Guenther, 45, was killed by McLaughlin on November 20, 2003
McLaughlin, who previously went by Scott, was executed 17 years after she was convicted of killing and stalking her girlfriend Beverly Guenther, 45, and dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis in 2003.
McLaughlin was put to death by lethal injection after Republican Governor Mike Parson declined a clemency request hours before.
'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 confirming the execution would go ahead.
'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.'
McLaughlin started transitioning three years ago while in prison.
McLaughlin died by lethal injection 19 years after she killed her ex-girlfriend. She is pictured on the right before transitioning, in a mugshot from 2003 when she went by the name Scott
Republican Governor Mike Parson denied her clemency request hours before her execution
A database on the website for the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center shows that 1,558 people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the mid-1970s. All but 17 of those put to death were men.
The center said there are no known previous cases of an openly transgender inmate being executed. McLaughlin began transitioning about three years ago at the state prison in Potosi.
In addition, the clemency petition cited McLaughlin's traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard during her trial.
She claimed in her petition that a foster parent rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father used a stun gun on her. It also cited severe depression that resulted in multiple suicide attempts, both as a child and as an adult.
The petition also included 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.
But McLaughlin's sexual identity was 'not the main focus' of the clemency request, her attorney, Larry Komp, said.
