US carries out first execution of a transgender person
- Missouri inmate Amber McLaughlin was put to death on Tuesday for a 2003 killing
- She was the first transgender person to be executed in the United States
A transgender woman convicted of murder was put to death late Tuesday in the first such execution in the United States, officials said.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, died by lethal injection. She was pronounced dead shortly before 7pm local time at the Diagnostic and Correctional Centre in the town of Bonne Terre, Missouri, according to a statement from the state prison department.
“I am sorry for what I did,” McLaughlin said in a final, written, statement. “I am a loving and caring person.”
McLaughlin was the first transgender person of either sex to be executed in the country, and also the first person to die by capital punishment this year in America.
She was convicted of murdering a former girlfriend in 2003 in a suburb of St Louis, before she transitioned.
McLaughlin stalked the victim to the point where the ex-partner sought a restraining order.