An American woman who had been sentenced to death for the murder of her ex-partner became the first transgender woman to be executed in the United States on Tuesday. Amber McLaughlin, 49, also became the first person to be executed in 2023 in the country.
The American received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:51 p.m. local time at the Bonne Terre penitentiary in the state of Missouri (center), according to a press release, for a murder committed in 2003, before her transition. According to local media, she was held on death row for men.
Amber McLaughlin had murdered her ex-partner in the suburbs of Saint-Louis, the big city in Missouri. She had not supported her separation and had been harassing her ever since, to the point that her ex-girlfriend had obtained protective measures.
A trial in 2006
But on the day of the crime, Amber McLaughlin was waiting for her outside work with a kitchen knife and raped and then stabbed her before dumping her body near the Mississippi River, according to local media.
After her trial in 2006, jurors found her guilty of the murder, but did not agree on the sentence. A judge then decided to retain the death sentence.
The states of Missouri and Indiana are the only ones that authorize their magistrates to impose death sentences in the absence of unanimity in the popular jury. Based on this oddity, Amber McLaughlin’s lawyers had asked Republican Governor Mike Parson to commute her sentence to life in prison.
“The death penalty considered here does not reflect the conscience of the community but rather that of a single judge,” they wrote in their clemency petition, which also invokes their client’s difficult childhood and psychiatric disorders.
His request had received the support of several personalities, including two of Missouri’s elected representatives in the US Congress, Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver.
Source: BFM TV
