A Transgender Woman in Missouri Wants to be Executed for the 2003 Guenther Murder: A Clemency Petition with Gov. Mike Parson
A transgender woman who is scheduled to be executed in Missouri next month for murdering a woman in 2003 has filed a clemency application with the governor, citing struggles with brain damage and childhood trauma, the petition says.
McLaughlin, 49, and her attorneys had petitioned Republican Gov. Mike Parson for clemency, asking him to commute her death sentence. McLaughlin’s remorse and mental health issues were just one of the reasons he was acquitted of the death penalty.
At trial, McLaughlin’s jury did not hear expert testimony about her mental state at the time of Guenther’s murder, the petition said. That testimony, her attorneys said, could have tipped the scales toward a life sentence by supporting the mitigating factors cited by the defense and rebutting the prosecution’s claim McLaughlin acted with depravity of mind – that her actions were particularly brutal or “wantonly vile” – the only aggravating factor the jury found.
The Death Penalty Information Center tells CNN that McLaughlin is the first person to be given an execution date because of their gender identity.
She was placed into the foster care system due to her mother abandoning her and forcing feces into her face according to the petition.
The attorneys for McLaughlin will meet with the legal team of the governor on Tuesday to discuss her petition.
“These are not decisions that the Governor takes lightly, and the process is underway as it relates to the execution scheduled for January,” Jones said.
McLaughlin would be executed in a way that would highlight the flaws of the justice system, according to her attorney.
“It would continue the systemic failures that existed throughout Amber’s life where no interventions occurred to stop and intercede to protect her as a child and teen,” Komp said. “All that could go wrong did go wrong for her.”
McLaughlin’s trial judge ordered the death penalty to be ruled without parole or death, and he should be granted clemency
McLaughlin has not started a legal name change or transition and he is still on death row, according to the governor’s office.
According to the statement from the office, the execution will proceed as planned. The family and loved ones of her victim, Beverly Guenther, “deserve peace,” the statement said.
The two were previously in a relationship, but they had separated by the time of the killing and Guenther had received an order of protection against McLaughlin after she was arrested for burglarizing Guenther’s home.
Missouri doesn’t require a jury to unanimously vote to impose the death penalty, unlike most of the US. According to state law, in cases where a jury is unable to agree on the death penalty, the judge decides between life imprisonment without parole or death. McLaughlin’s trial judge imposed the death penalty.
If Parson were to grant clemency, McLaughlin’s attorneys argued, he would not have subverted the will of the jury, since the jury could not agree on a capital sentence.
The petition was submitted to the governor, and it states that McLaughlin should be granted clemency for a number of reasons.