Amber McLaughlin (January 13, 1973 – January 3, 2023) was an American transgender woman executed in Missouri for the 2003 rape and murder of her ex-girlfriend, Beverly Guenther. At the time of the crime, McLaughlin was living as male; she transitioned from male to female while incarcerated.[1] McLaughlin became the first openly transgender person to be executed in the United States.[2][3] Her legal name remained her birth name, Scott A. McLaughlin, and she was identified as such in her death warrant and in prison records.[4]
McLaughlin was a registered sex offender because of a 1992 conviction for sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl.[2]
At McLaughlin's 2006 trial, the jury was deadlocked on the issue of the death penalty.[5] In most U.S. states, this would result in a sentence of life imprisonment. However, Missouri is one of only two states (the other being Indiana) in which a judge has the discretion to sentence a defendant to death if the jury is deadlocked on the issue of capital punishment.[6]
