TG posted:goatstein you must be torn on this issue, since you rightly hate troops but also hate transpeople
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/01/us-marine-guilty-of-killing-transgender-woman-in-philippines
A court in the Philippines has convicted a US marine of killing a Filipino in a hotel last year after he discovered she was a transgender woman. He had been taking part in joint military exercises in the country.
L/Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted on Tuesday of homicide by first strangling Jennifer Laude and then dunking her head into a toilet bowl in the hotel they had checked into after meeting in a bar in Olongapo city, north-west of Manila. Court clerk Gerry Gruspe said Pemberton had been sentenced to six to 12 years in jail, but time already spent in detention would be taken off his term.
Laude’s mother, Julita, said that while she was happy that the verdict detailed everything that had transpired, she was not pleased with the sentence because she had hoped Pemberton would be found guilty of murder, a more serious crime than homicide.
“But the important thing is he will be jailed,” she said. “My son’s life is not wasted.”
Outside the court, a small number of leftwing activists celebrated but warned that they would watch to ensure that Pemberton was detained in a Philippine jail, as the judge ordered.
The killing in October 2014 sparked anger in the Philippines and reignited calls by leftwing groups and nationalists for an end to America’s military presence in the country at a time when the US is reasserting its dominance in Asia and Manila has turned to Washington for support amid an escalating territorial dispute with China.
Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was one of thousands of American and Philippine military personnel who participated in a joint exercise last year. He and a group of other marines were on leave after the exercise and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former US naval base.
Pemberton and Laude left the bar and checked in together at a nearby hotel. About 30 minutes later, Pemberton walked out, leaving the room’s door ajar, according to hotel staff.
Pemberton testified in August that he had choked Laude during a fight that erupted when he discovered she was a transgender woman, but said she was still alive when he left her in the shower, according to his lawyer, Rowena Garcia Flores.
Lawyers for the Laude family, however, said she was dead when Pemberton left her. Police have said that Laude had apparently been drowned in a toilet.
Activists display images of Joseph Scott Pemberton outside the US embassy in Manila following his conviction. Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Activists display images of Joseph Scott Pemberton outside the US embassy in Manila following his conviction. Photograph: Erik de Castro/Reuters
The judge, Roline Ginez-Jabalde, ordered that Pemberton be jailed at the New Bilibid prison in Muntinlupa city.
The case also revived a debate over which government should have custody of US military personnel who break the law under a visiting forces agreement the two countries signed in 1998.
The agreement says that the Philippines can prosecute American service members, but that the US has custody over them “from the commission of the offence until completion of all judicial proceedings”.
However, the supreme court in the Philippines ruled in 2009 that convicted US personnel must serve their sentences in the country.
In a compromise last year, the US agreed to have Pemberton detained in a compound at Philippine military headquarters in Quezon City guarded by US marines with an outer ring of Filipino forces.
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