Amber McLaughlin: Countdown to the execution of the first transgender in the USA – The case that divided the jury

Time is counting down for her implementation her 49-year-old Amber McLaughlinas it may happen today and if it happens, it will be the first time it is implemented death penalty in trans person on USA.

So on the other side of the Atlantic, reactions have erupted, so why some believe that he committed the crime for which he was convicted due to psychological problemsand why the execution was ordered by a judge, because the jury was divided and could not decide.

Thus, lawyers and two congressmen are asking the governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, to grant a pardon, even at the last minute.

McLaughlin’s crime

According to AFP, the 49-year-old committed murder in 2003, before transitioning her. Then he had kill her ex-partner in the suburbs of St. Louis.

McLaughlin he did not accept their separation and harassed the victim, until her ex-girlfriend appealed to the authorities and asked for measures to be taken to protect her. But on the day of the crime, McLaughlin was waiting for her outside her work, he stabbed her with a kitchen knife, raped her and dumped the body near the Mississippi River.

At her trial in 2006, jurors found her guilty but could not agree on what sentence she should be given. By the judge’s decision, he was sentenced to death. In fact, in the States of Missouri and Indiana, judges are allowed to impose death sentences if juries cannot unanimously decide on the penalty.

New trial in 2016

But for a while since she was in prison, she changed her gender identity and began identifying as a woman while waiting to learn her execution date. Nonetheless, in 2016 there was a new trial and judge of St. Louis ordered a new hearingciting concerns with the decisions made by the jurors, as well as the evidence provided by her lawyers.

Specifically, they stated that she had been abused from an early agesince her stepmother smeared feces on her face her, while her step-police father would dress her in a nightgown and then beat her with the glop. This resulted in her making suicide attempts, both as a teenager and as an adult.

It is noted that according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), no openly transgender person has been executed in the US to date. But the issue has gained attention in recent months, after the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Victoria Drain and in Oregon Tara Zeist’s sentence was commuted.