The state of Missouri is slated to execute the first openly transgender woman in U.S. history. Forty-nine-year-old Amber McLaughlin is scheduled to die by lethal injection today, Tuesday, unless a request for clemency is approved by Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parsons. McLaughlin’s clemency plea details her traumatic childhood, facing horrific abuse from a foster parent and her adoptive father. She suffered from a brain injury and fetal alcohol syndrome and struggled with severe mental health issues as an adult, having attempted suicide several times. McLaughlin was convicted of murder and other charges in 2006. The jury in her case was deadlocked over her sentencing, but Missouri law allows the trial judge to issue a sentence in those cases, including the death penalty. McLaughlin, who transitioned during her time on death row, would also be the first woman executed in Missouri since 1976.