Amber McLaughlin was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape of her late girlfriend Beverly Guenther. After the verdict, she was killed by a legal injection. Amber McLaughlin was 49 years old.
Mike Parson, the governor of the state, was contacted by McLaughlin’s lawyers before she sentenced to death by lethal injection.
In her pardoning letter, her lawyers said that McLaughlin’s crimes were caused by her bad mental health and the abuse she got as a child.
The letter says that Amber McLaughlin “never stood a chance.”
“She was let down by the institutions, people, and interventions that were supposed to protect her, and her abusers got in the way of the care she needed so badly.”
In the request for a presidential pardon, it says, “The death sentence being considered now did not come from the community’s morals, but from a single judge.”
“An act of executive pardon will not interfere with the respect for jury verdicts, and since the jury did not vote for death, it will be a better reflection of what the jury wanted in terms of punishment.”
McLaughlin is the first transgender woman in the United States to be sentenced to death.
When was McLaughlin convicted?
On June 5, 2006, McLaughlin was convicted of the following charges:
- First-degree murder
- Forcible rape
- Armed criminal action
The judge gave the criminal the death penalty after the jury couldn’t decide what to do.
The jury was split on whether McLaughlin should get life in prison without the chance to get out or be put to death.
In 2016, the judge’s decision was thrown out, but it was later valid.
McLaughlin went from being a man named Scott to being a woman named Amber while he was in jail.