Philippine court upholds guilty verdict on U.S. Marine in transgender woman's killing
Mon Apr 10, 2017
The Philippine Court of Appeals has upheld a guilty verdict on a U.S. Marine for killing a transgender woman nearly three years ago, a case that stirred debate over the U.S. military presence in its former colony.
A lower court had found Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton guilty of killing Jennifer Laude in a hotel in Olongapo, outside a former U.S. navy base northwest of the capital, in 2014.
He was jailed for between six and 10 years on a Philippine military base.
Pemberton had admitted choking but not killing Laude after, he said, he discovered that a man was giving him oral sex, not a woman. He had been charged with murder but was convicted of the lesser offence of homicide, which does not require malicious intent.
In a ruling dated April 3, but only made public on Monday, the Court of Appeals denied Pemberton's appeal due to "lack of merit".
It also raised the compensation he must pay Laude's family to 150,000 pesos ($3,000) from 80,000 pesos.
Philippine court upholds guilty verdict on U.S. Marine in transgender woman's killing | Reuters