BREAKING: Murderer who identified as transgender executed in Missouri

On Tuesday evening, transgender death row inmate Amber McLaughlin was executed by lethal injection. The execution comes after attorneys for McLaughlin requested clemency from the governor, and that petition was denied.

McLaughlin was convicted in 2003 for murdering McLaughlin’s ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther. According to Newsweek, the two began a relationship in 2002, with McLaughlin then going by Scott McLaughlin, the name under which McLaughlin was tried and convicted. 

The two separated in the spring of 2003, and on October 27, 2003, McLaughlin was arrested and charged with breaking into Guenther’s home. Guenther subsequently filed for a restraining order.

According to the Associated Press, McLaughlin would appear at Guenther’s office where she worked in suburban St. Louis, sometimes hiding inside the building.

On the night of November 20, 2003, Guenther’s neighbors called the police when she failed to return home. When officers arrived at her work, they found a broken knife handle near her car as well as a trail of blood.

Prosecutors for the state argued that physical evidence suggested that McLaughlin had forced Guenther to the ground, raping her before stabbing her repeatedly and placing her in the back of McLaughlin’s car, Newsweek reported.

The corpse was said to have been left in the underbrush near the Mississippi River, and the following day, McLaughlin bleached the inside of the car used and eventually asked a friend to take McLaughlin to the hospital regarding a mental disorder. Police were informed, and McLaughlin was arrested upon arrival at the hospital.

McLaughlin was charged with first-degree murder, rape, and armed criminal action, but the jury deadlocked and as allowed by Missouri law, a judge handed down the death penalty. 

According to the Associated Press, McLaughlin began transitioning around three years ago.

McLaughlin’s attorneys had submitted a clemency application to Gov. Mike Parson’s office, arguing that McLaughlin had suffered childhood abuse, was remorseful, and had a borderline intellectual disability, but Parson denied the application.

"McLaughlin’s conviction and sentence remains after multiple, thorough examinations of Missouri law. McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Ms. Guenther. McLaughlin is a violent criminal," Parson said in a statement.

"Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The State of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order and deliver justice."

McLaughlin is the first person to be executed in the US in 2023.