Marine Convicted of Homicide Released Early from Philippine Jail
A Philippine court has ordered the early release for good conduct of a U.S. Marine convicted in the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino.
The court’s order on Tuesday for the release of Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton drew protests from the family and lawyers of Jennifer Laude, who was found dead in a motel room in Olongapo, northwest of Manila, after they met at a disco bar in October 2014.
Pemberton has been held six years of a maximum 10-year jail term, mostly in a compound jointly guarded by Philippine and American security personnel at the main military camp in metropolitan Manila.
“I deplore the short period of imprisonment meted on Pemberton, who killed a Filipino under the most gruesome manner,” said presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who once served as the Laude family’s lawyer. “Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty.”
“The light penalty imposed on Pemberton proves that despite the president’s independent foreign policy, Americans continue to have the status of conquering colonials in our country,” Roque said.
Pemberton’s lawyer, Rowena Garcia Flores, said his detention was shortened by authorities under a Philippine law that also applies to Filipinos.
If all of Pemberton’s good conduct merits in jail were applied, “he’s already overstaying,” she said by phone.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said the military will help Bureau of Corrections jail personnel release Pemberton once it receives the court order.
In December 2015, a judge convicted Pemberton of homicide, not the more serious charge of murder as prosecutors sought.
The Olongapo court judge said at the time that she downgraded the charge because factors such as cruelty and treachery had not been proven.
Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was one of thousands of American and Philippine military personnel who participated in joint exercises in the country in 2014.
He and a group of other Marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former U.S. Navy base.
Laude was later found dead in a motel room where witnesses said he and Pemberton had checked in. A witness told investigators that Pemberton said he choked Laude after discovering he was transgender.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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