First transgender woman executed said she’s ‘loving caring person’ in last words
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The first transgender woman in US history to be executed claimed she was a "loving and caring person" in her final words.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, was executed at 7pm (US time) on Tuesday (January 3) in St Louis, Missouri, after spending 17 years on Death Row for the murder of her ex-girlfriend.
The 49-year-old – who only transitioned three years ago – stabbed Beverly Guenther to death in 2003 after a campaign of stalking.
READ MORE: Brit pensioner becomes 'best friends' with Death Row inmate who is 'a good man'
No legal appeals were launched and Missouri Governor Mike Parson refused a request for clemency.
As her execution was carried out, McLaughlin spoke quietly with a spiritual adviser at her side as a fatal dose of pentobarbital was injected.
She breathed heavily a couple of times before closing her eyes and was pronounced dead a few minutes later, the Daily Mirror reports.
In a final written statement released after her death, McLaughlin said: “I am sorry for what I did. I am a loving and caring person.”
Amber dated Guenther in 2003 when she was still known as Scott McLaughlin, but after they broke up, things quickly went wrong.
McLaughlin would stalk Guenther and hid at her workplace, with police sometimes having to escort her to her car because she was scared.
On the night of November 20, 2003, Guenther's neighbours called the cops when she failed to return home.
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Officers went to the office building, where they found a broken knife handle near her car and a trail of blood.
A day later, McLaughlin led police to a location near the Mississippi River in St. Louis, where the body had been dumped.
McLaughlin's request for clemency was rejected, despite her counsel citing traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard at her original trial in 2006.
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, which also cited severe depression resulting in multiple suicide attempts, both as a child and as an adult.
Nonetheless, Missouri Governor Mike Parson rejected the request.
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- Death Row
- Murder
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