A transgender woman convicted of murder was sentenced to death on Tuesday in the first such execution in the United States, officials said.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, died shortly before 7 p.m. at the Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, according to a statement from the state prison department.
Local news station Fox2now reported that McLaughlin died of a lethal injection.
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The first transgender person to be executed
McLaughlin is the first transgender person of either sex to be executed in the country, and also the first person to be executed this year in America.
He was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 2003 in suburban St. Louis. Louis, before he moved.
McLaughlin stalked the victim to the point where his ex-partner asked for restraint.
On the day of the murder, McLaughlin was waiting for a woman – named Beverly Guenther – as he left work.
Guenther was raped and stabbed to death with a kitchen knife. His body was dumped near the Mississippi river.
the death penalty
In 2006, a jury found McLaughlin guilty of murder, but deadlocked on his sentence.
The trial judge stepped in and imposed the death penalty. Such interventions are permitted in Missouri as well as in Indiana.
In light of the fact that the jury did not sentence McLaughlin to death, his attorney asked Governor Mike Parson to commute his sentence to life in prison.
“The death sentence that is now being considered does not come from the conscience of the community – but from a single judge,” his lawyer argued in a plea for clemency.
They also said McLaughlin was ill and suffered from mental health issues.
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His cause has received support from prominent people including two members of the US House of Representatives, Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver.
In a letter to the governor they said McLaughlin’s adoptive father used to beat him with a baton and even tasered him.
“In addition to this horrific abuse, she also silently struggles with her identity, grappling with what she now knows is gender dysphoria,” the letter said. The condition describes people who feel their sex at birth and gender identity do not match.
Press reports say McLaughlin began gender transitioning in recent years, but remains on Missouri’s men’s death row.
The Death Penalty Information Center, which works to abolish the penalty in America, said there have been no previous cases of a transgender person being executed in the United States.
The issue has drawn more attention in recent months, with the Ohio Supreme Court upholding the death penalty against a transgender woman and the Oregon state commuting one, the center said.