Amber McLaughlin, a prisoner in Missouri, has been executed after the state’s Republican Governor Mike Parson refused her clemency request.

The Missouri Department of Corrections reported that McLaughlin had been pronounced dead at 6:51 PM local time at Bonne Terre’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center.

McLaughlin issued a final statement, in which she said, “I am sorry for what I did…“I am a loving and caring person.”

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Parson, in his statement, said, “McLaughlin is a violent criminal,” adding, “Ms. Guenther’s family and loved ones deserve peace. The State of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order and deliver justice.”

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.

Who was Amber McLaughlin?

Long before she transitioned, McLaughlin was dating Beverly Guenther in 2003. According to court documents, McLaughlin would show up at Guenther’s suburban St. Louis business after they broke up, sometimes hiding inside the structure. Police officers occasionally escorted Guenther to her vehicle after work since Guenther had obtained a restraining order against her.

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Guenther’s neighbors called police on the night of Nov. 20, 2003, when she failed to return home. Officers went to the office building, where they found a broken knife handle near her car and a trail of blood. A day later, McLaughlin led police to a location near the Mississippi River in St. Louis where the body had been dumped.

In 2006, McLaughlin was found guilty of first-degree murder. A jury couldn’t agree on a verdict, so a judge executed McLaughlin. According to Komp, only Missouri and Indiana permit death sentences to be handed down by judges rather than juries.