KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Seven retired Missouri judges have urged Gov. Mike Parson to stop the execution of Amber McLaughlin, arguing that the death penalty was handed down “via a flaw in Missouri’s capital sentencing scheme.”
McLaughlin, a 49-year-old transgender woman, was convicted of killing her ex-girlfriend in St. Louis County in 2003.
In her 2006 murder trial, the jury could not reach a decision on sentencing and rejected three of the aggravating circumstances prosecutors presented in arguing for the death penalty.
