First trans woman on death row in US begs Missouri governor for mercy

The first openly transgender woman slated for execution in the US is appealing to Missouri’s governor for mercy, citing mental health struggles.

Lawyers for Amber McLaughlin, now 49, on Monday asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare her life before her Jan. 3 execution.

She was convicted of killing her 45-year-old ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was raped and stabbed to death in St. Louis County.

In a phone interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday, McLaughlin described her looming execution as “a sad thing.”

“I don’t agree with it,” she said. “People should know I’m mentally ill.”

The death warrant is in the name of Scott McLaughlin, who is being held at the men’s prison in Potosi. McLaughlin has transitioned to a woman over the past several years while on death row.

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.

“It’s wrong when anyone’s executed regardless, but I hope that this is a first that doesn’t occur,” federal public defender Larry Komp said. “Amber has shown great courage in embracing who she is as a transgender woman in spite of the potential for people reacting with hate, so I admire her display of courage.”

In their 27-page clemency petition, McLaughlin’s lawyers cited her traumatic childhood and mental health issues, caused in part by brain damage and fetal alcohol syndrome, which the jury never heard during trial.

A foster parent rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father, who was a cop, tased and beat her with a nightstick, according to the letter to Parson. She tried to kill herself multiple times, both as a child and as an adult.

“Amber McLaughlin never had a chance,” the clemency petition read. “She was failed by the institutions, individuals and interventions that should have protected her, and her abusers obstructed the care she so desperately needed.”

Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the governor’s office is reviewing her request for mercy.

“These are not decisions that the governor takes lightly,” Jones said in an email.

A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death after a jury was unable to decide on death or life in prison without parole.

A federal judge in St. Louis ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2016, citing concerns about the effectiveness of McLaughlin’s trial lawyers and faulty jury instructions. But in 2021, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty.

McLaughlin’s lawyers also listed the jury’s indecision and McLaughlin’s remorse as reasons Parson should stay her execution.

Missouri has only put to death one woman before, state Corrections Department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said in an email.

McLaughlin’s lawyers said she previously was rooming with another transgender woman but now is living in isolation leading up to her scheduled execution date.

Pojmann said 9% of Missouri’s prison population is female, and all capital punishment inmates are imprisoned at Potosi Correctional Center.

“It is extremely unusual for a woman to commit a capital offense, such as a brutal murder, and even more unusual for a women to, as was the case with McLaughlin, rape and murder a woman,” Pojmann said.

Parson has refused to grant clemency to the five men executed since he became governor in 2018. Missouri executed two men this year.

With Post wires