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Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A transgender woman in Missouri sentenced to be executed on Jan. 3, is asking the state's governor for clemency, citing mental health struggles. Lawyers on Monday appealed to Gov. Mike Parson, R-Mo., to commute the death sentence for Amber McLaughlin.
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The jury that convicted McLaughlin, 49, never heard about her mental health state or abusive childhood.
If executed, McLaughlin would become the first openly transgender woman known to be executed in the United States.
McLaughlin, who went by the name Scott at the time, was convicted of killing her 45-year-old ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003.
A jury convicted McLaughlin of first-degree murder. McLaughlin was also charged with raping Guenther before stabbing her and disposing of her body near the banks of the Mississippi River, in South St. Louis, Mo.
Parson has declined to grant clemency to the five men executed since he became governor in June 2018.
A District Court Judge vacated the death sentence in 2016, ruling a jury did not properly weigh aggravating factors, and that a jury, not a judge, should be the one to weigh those factors.
The jury was deadlocked during the penalty phase of the trial, leaving the decision up to the trial judge.
The 8th U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed in 2021 and reinstated the death sentence.
"People should know I'm mentally ill," McLaughlin said in a brief interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"I don't agree with it. I'm trying to stay calm."
An application for executive clemency was submitted Monday to Parson's office, detailing McLaughlin's life growing up. That life included an abusive childhood, brain damage and fetal alcohol syndrome as well depression as a child and suicide attempts as an adult.
The filing argues that the jury was never made aware of those aggravating factors.
