This piece from the Kansas City Star reports on Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman convicted of murdering her ex-partner. She is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection next month in Missouri, and her attorneys have submitted an application to Gov. Mike Parson asking for a commutation of her sentence.

They “argue her sentence should be commuted because she suffered abuse as a child, has a borderline intellectual disability and is remorseful.

According to the clemency application, McLaughlin was harmed before she was even born. ‘Alcohol ingested by her mother irretrievably impacted her cognitive development,’ her attorneys wrote.

As a child she suffered abuse at the hands of her birth parents, foster families and adoptive parents. Her adoptive home was described as a ‘house of horrors’ where her father used a Taser on her, and cabinets and the refrigerator were kept locked.

“Amber McLaughlin never had a chance,” the clemency application said. “She was failed by the institutions, individuals and interventions that should have protected her.”

Click here to read the full article with details on the case and information about Missouri’s death penalty.