Gov. Parson, show Missouri isn’t a vengeful state. Stop Amber McLaughlin’s execution

We have said this before, but as long as Missouri continues to execute prisoners with regularity, it can’t be said too often: Capital punishment is wrong and barbaric, and it’s time to abolish it for good.

Amber McLaughlin, convicted of murdering her ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther in St. Louis County in 2003, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Jan. 3. This week, she asked Gov. Mike Parson for a commutation of her sentence. And if ever there was a case warranting such action, this would be one to consider.

Attorneys for McLaughlin, 49, have argued in her clemency application that her sentence should be commuted because she suffered abuse as a child, has a borderline intellectual disability and is remorseful.

The Star reported that she was abused by her birth parents, foster families and adoptive parents. Her adoptive home was described as a “house of horrors” where her father used a stun gun on her and locked food away.

At her 2006 trial, the jury was unable to come to a decision on McLaughlin’s sentence. The death penalty was imposed by the judge alone — a unilateral action possible only in Missouri and Indiana. Anti-death penalty activists argue that no individual should have the absolute power to decide that the state should kill a person. And we wholeheartedly agree.

A federal judge overturned McLaughlin’s conviction because of a “constitutionally ineffective” defense attorney. But that decision was reversed by an appeals court.

The governor’s office said McLaughlin’s application is under review. “These are not decisions that the Governor takes lightly, and the process is underway as it relates to the execution scheduled for January,” said spokeswoman Kelli Jones.

But the question of whether to put McLaughlin to death shouldn’t be Parson’s, because it is beyond dispute that this or any other execution serves no real purpose other than societal vengeance.

There is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime any more effectively than a sentence of life behind bars. Much research has been done on this issue and the data shows that the 27 states with death penalty laws have murder rates no lower than the 23 that don’t put execute people.

And according to the Pew Research Center, in many of the jurisdictions that authorize the death penalty, executions are rare. Thirteen of these states, along with the U.S. military, haven’t carried out an execution in a decade or more, including three — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — where governors have imposed formal moratoriums on executions.

And in July 2021 Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a temporary halt on all federal executions after an unusually high number of death row inmates were put to death during the Trump administration.

So is Missouri a vengeful state? It seems so. Since 2017, Missouri has executed six people who had been convicted of murder. Last year, the state executed the intellectually disabled Ernest Johnson, even rejecting a plea from Pope Francis through a Vatican diplomatic representative who called on Parson to extend mercy as a “courageous recognition of the inalienable dignity of all human life.”

Missouri carried out the death penalty twice this year, including last month’s execution of Kevin Johnson Jr., convicted of killing St. Louis-area police Sgt. William Leo McEntee.

A common argument in favor of the death penalty is that the worst criminals — murderers — don’t deserve to live. But maybe they just don’t deserve to live among the rest of us.

Four years ago, before the state administered a lethal injection to convicted murderer Russell Bucklew, we said it was long past time to acknowledge the many reasons the state should stop executing prisoners. No exceptions.

Nothing has changed. There remains no good or valid rationale for keeping the government in the business of killing. Commuting Amber McLaughlin’s death sentence to spend her life locked up is the only just course of action for a civilized society.