First Transgender Person Executed Under Rare Missouri Law (1)

Missouri executed the first openly transgender person in the country on Tuesday evening under an uncommon state law that allows judges to impose the death penalty when a jury deadlocks on a punishment.

Amber McLaughlin was put to death by lethal injection for the rape and murder of her ex-girlfriend, Beverly Guenther, in 2003, her attorney Michelle Law confirmed in an email to Bloomberg Law.

A trial judge imposed the death penalty after the jury was unable to agree on a sentence. Missouri and Indiana are the only states with this unusual scheme that gives judges sole discretion when there’s ...