(UnitedVoice.com) – Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) held the life of a death row inmate in his hands in the new year. However, on January 3, he decided he would not grant a clemency request, clearing the way for a historic execution.
Amber McLaughlin’s attorneys asked the governor to spare her because she allegedly had mental health issues. The lawyers cited a traumatic childhood as one of the reasons she killed her former girlfriend, 45-year-old Beverly Guenther, in 2003.
At the time of the murder, McLaughlin had not transitioned. Guenther had tried to protect herself from her killer, even obtaining a restraining order and having law enforcement officers escort her to her vehicle when she finished work. When the victim didn’t return home one night, her neighbors called the police. When the cops went to the office building where Guenther worked, they saw a broken knife and a trail of blood near her car.
McLaughlin raped and stabbed Guenther to death. She then dumped her body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
According to the Associated Press, the attorneys told the governor the jury never heard about the abuse McLaughlin suffered as a kid. Her adoptive father allegedly tased her. A letter to Parson claimed one of the convicted killer’s adoptive parents rubbed feces in her face. She also reportedly tried committing suicide multiple times as an adult and a child. The arguments didn’t sway the governor, who allowed the first execution of a transgender inmate.
McLaughlin’s clemency application to Gov. Mike Parson’s office, arguing that McLaughlin had suffered childhood abuse, was remorseful, and had a borderline intellectual disability, was denied. This is the first U.S. death row execution in 2023. https://t.co/1KHc4VP9eS
— Jessico Bowman (@JessicoBowman) January 4, 2023
McLaughlin had a spiritual adviser with her when the state administered the lethal injection. She’d prepared a written statement earlier in which she apologized for her crime and said, “I am a loving and caring person.” Authorities pronounced her dead a few minutes after she received the fatal dose of the drugs.
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