Missouri set to become first state to execute an openly transgender person

Amber McLaughlin is facing the fate on Tuesday of becoming the first openly transgender person to be executed in the US – unless Missouri’s governor, Mike Parson, grants clemency and puts a stop to the planned lethal injection.

“We’re just anxiously waiting on a decision,” McLaughlin’s lawyer, Larry Komp, told the Guardian on Monday.

There are no further court appeals pending. The clemency request focuses on several issues, including McLaughlin’s severely traumatic childhood and serious mental health issues, which the jury never heard during her trial. She was convicted in 2006 for killing a former girlfriend in 2003.

Two Missouri members of Congress, Democrats Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver, have been campaigning for McLaughlin’s sentence to be commuted and last week wrote to Parson urging him to scrap the execution.

They noted that McLaughlin, 49, was given the death sentence when the judge in the case made a unilateral decision after the jury deadlocked on her fate. The members of Congress complained about alleged shortcomings in her trial, including failure to include expert testimony and evidence on the defendant’s mental health.

They also condemned the death penalty in principle, calling executions a “moral depravity”.

“They are not about justice; they are about who has institutional power and who doesn’t. We urge you to correct these injustices using every tool available, including the power to grant clemency,” Bush and Cleaver wrote.

They further stated in the letter: “Ms McLaughlin’s cruel execution would mark the state’s first use of the death penalty on a woman since the US supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, and even worse it would not solve any of the systemic problems facing Missourians and people all across America, including anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence, and cycles of violence that target and harm women. It would simply destroy yet another community while using the concepts of fairness and justice as a cynical pretext.”

There is no known case of an openly transgender person being executed in the US before, according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center.

McLaughlin underwent gender transition while incarcerated.

Parson’s spokesperson, Kelli Jones, said on Monday that the review process for the clemency request is still under way.

Komp said: “This is an ideal individual for him to grant clemency because there is no jury verdict … in fact, giving clemency is re-enforcing what members of the jury felt about this case.”

He added that McLaughlin’s gender identity is “not the main focus” of the clemency request.

But he noted: “We think Amber has demonstrated incredible courage because I can tell you there’s a lot of hate when it comes to that issue.”

He added that McLaughlin was “getting support from the people that care about her”.