US Marine convicted of killing transgender Filipino earns early release from prison, pending appeal

Jennifer Laude was found dead, her head slumped in a toilet bowl in a motel room where she and Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton had checked in

Philippine presidential spokesman criticised the early release, saying it showed ‘Americans continue to have the status of conquering colonials’

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US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted in the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino. Photo: AP

Published: 9:22am, 3 Sep 2020Updated: 10:08pm, 3 Sep 2020

A US Marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the Philippines nearly six years ago will remain in prison while the victim’s lawyer seeks to overturn a court ruling granting him an early release, a presidential spokesman said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Olongapo trial court ordered the release of Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, sent to prison in 2015 for killing Jennifer Laude on a six- to 10-year sentence, citing his good behaviour.

He served most of his sentence at a compound jointly guarded by Philippine and US security personnel at the main military camp in metropolitan Manila. The place of detention was agreed to under the terms of the treaty allies’ Visiting Forces Agreement, although Laude’s family had demanded Pemberton be held in an ordinary jail.

Harry Roque, a spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte who served as lawyer in the prosecution of Pemberton, told a media briefing Philippine prison officials will not process his release until the local court decides on an appeal filed by the victim’s lawyer questioning the early release on Wednesday.

The court’s release order has revived old tensions over the role of US military in the country, with Roque joining human rights activists in slamming the decision.

“Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty,” Roque said on Wednesday. “I deplore the short period of imprisonment meted on Pemberton, who killed a Filipino under the most gruesome manner.

“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.”