US Marine convicted of killing transgender woman deported

MANILA (AP):

A US Marine convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman was deported on Sunday after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence in the Philippines.

Lance Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton said in a farewell message that he was “extremely grateful” to President Rodrigo Duterte for pardoning him and expressed his “most sincere sympathy” to the family of Jennifer Laude, who he was convicted of killing in 2014 in a motel northwest of Manila after finding out that she was transgender.

In his nearly six years of confinement, Pemberton said he spent “much time contemplating the many errors” he committed the night Laude died. “He wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret,” according to Pemberton’s message, which was issued by his lawyer, Rowena Garcia-Flores.

LEARNT VALUE OF LIFE

Virginia Suarez, the Laude family’s lawyer, said in a statement that she wishes Pemberton “peace of mind”, and hopes that he has learned “the value of life and dignity regardless of gender and nationality”.

Philippine immigration officers and American personnel escorted the 25-year-old Pemberton, who was in handcuffs and wearing a face mask, from his cell in the main military camp in Manila to the airport, where he boarded a military aircraft. He was put on an immigration blacklist and will be banned from returning to the country, said immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval.

The US Embassy said that “all legal proceedings in the case took place under Philippine jurisdiction and law”, and that “Pemberton fulfilled his sentence as ordered by Philippine courts.”

On Monday, Duterte granted an “absolute and unconditional pardon” to Pemberton in a move that caught many by surprise. The Philippine leader has long been a vocal critic of US security policies while reaching out to China and Russia.

Duterte’s pardon was condemned by left-wing and LGBTQ groups.

Duterte said he granted the pardon because Pemberton was not treated fairly after his early release, which he said the Marine may have deserved, was blocked.

Pemberton and a few other Marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former US Navy base.

Laude was later found dead, her head slumped in a toilet bowl in a motel room, where witnesses said she and Pemberton had checked in. A witness told investigators that Pemberton said he choked Laude after discovering she was transgender.