First trans woman who was sentenced to death in US implores Missouri governor for mercy

Amber (Scott) McLaughlin was convicted of killing HIS 45-year-old ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was raped and stabbed to death in St. Louis County.

By Edward Era Barbacena

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, 49, on Monday asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare HIM life before HIS Jan. 3 execution.

In a phone interview with the 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.

The death warrant is in the name of Scott McLaughlin. McLaughlin has transitioned while in prison.

“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 HE is as a transgender woman in spite of the potential for people reacting with hate, so I admire HIS 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 HIS face when she was a toddler and HIS adoptive father, who was a cop, tased and beat HIM with a nightstick, according to the letter to Parson. HE tried to kill herself multiple times, both as a child and as an adult.

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

Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the governor’s office is reviewing HIS 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 HIS execution.

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

McLaughlin’s lawyers said HE previously was rooming with another transgender woman but now is living in isolation leading up to HIS 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 woman 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.