BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A Missouri inmate has been put to death for a 2003 killing, becoming what is believed to be the first transgender woman executed in the U.S.
Amber McLaughlin was put to death Tuesday night, hours after Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined a clemency request. She was convicted of killing a former girlfriend in suburban St. Louis.
A database on the website for the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center shows that 1,558 people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in the mid-1970s. All but 17 of those put to death were men.
The center says there are no known previous cases of an openly transgender inmate being executed.
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