The clemency request focuses on several issues, including McLaughlin's traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard in her trial. A foster parent rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father used a stun gun on her, according to the clemency petition. It says she suffers from depression and attempted suicide multiple times.
Attorneys submitted an application for executive clemency to the governor on Dec. 12, asking Parson to commute McLaughlin's sentence to life and noting that she was not given the death penalty in a trial by jury. When the jury deadlocked on punishment during her trial, a St. Louis county judge instead determined McLaughlin's sentence. As the application states, Missouri is one of only two U.S. states, along with Indiana, that allow trial judges to impose death penalty sentences in the event of a deadlocked jury.
What I wrote in the "comment" section when signing:
The death penalty is unethical in all circumstances except the most extreme of circumstances---where there is no other option that will ensure the safety of a country's citizens, like on an island nation without a proper jail cell. In this case, it's unnecessary and meant to "punish" the offender instead of carrying out the goal of a government keeping its citizens safe. It's cruel and barbaric, and we should have moved past it by now as a society. Please consider granting clemency. Keeping the offender locked up for the rest of their life serves the purpose of keeping innocent people safe without letting an emotional desire for violent retribution get in the way of a well-run government/juicidial system. Thank you for your time.
Link to petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-amber-mclaughlin-in-missouri
Article with more information on the case: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/missouri-execution-amber-mclaughlin-first-openly-transgender-woman-death-row/
