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January 3, 2023

Missouri Set to Kill Amber McLaughlin in First Execution of Openly Transgender Woman
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The state of Missouri is slated to execute the first openly transgender
woman in U.S. history. Forty-nine-year-old Amber Mc Laughlin is
scheduled to die by lethal injection today, Tuesday, unless a request
for clemency is approved by Missouri's Republican Governor Mike Parsons.
Mc Laughlin's clemency plea details her traumatic childhood, facing
horrific abuse from a foster parent and her adoptive father. She
suffered from a brain injury and fetal alcohol syndrome and struggled
with severe mental health issues as an adult, having attempted suicide
several times. Mc Laughlin was convicted of murder and other charges in
2006. The jury in her case was deadlocked over her sentencing, but
Missouri law allows the trial judge to issue a sentence in those cases,
including the death penalty. Mc Laughlin, who transitioned during her
time on death row, would also be the first woman executed in Missouri
since 1976.


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