USA's 'first case' of transgender woman's execution: Amber McLaughlin put to death for murder

Amber McLaughlin's execution has reportedly become USA's first implementation of a death sentence against a transgender woman. The 49-year-old was injected with a fatal dose of pentobarbital in Missouri on 3 January 2023.

She had been convicted of stalking and killing a former girlfriend, and then dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St Louis.

Her clemency petition, which cited childhood abuse by her foster parents, was rejected by Republican Governor Mike Parson.

A foster parent rubbed faeces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father used a stun gun on her, according to the petition. It cited severe depression that resulted in multiple suicide attempts, both as a child and as an adult.

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The petition also included reports citing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a condition that causes anguish and other symptoms as a result of a disparity between a person's gender identity and their assigned sex at birth. But McLaughlin's sexual identity was “not the main focus” of the clemency request, her attorney, Larry Komp, said.

(With AP inputs)