UPDATED::U.S. Marine Claims 'Trans Panic' in Murder of Trans Filipina Jennifer Laude | Advocate.com

UPDATE::  U.S. Marine convicted of killing transgender Filipino files appeal

A U.S. Marine has asked a Philippine court to reverse his conviction in the killing of a transgender Filipino and sought a bail and a reduction of his six to 12-year jail term.

Attorney Rowena Garcia-Flores said she would insist that her client, Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, did not kill Jennifer Laude in a motel room after they met in a disco bar in October 2014 and that his sentence should be eased because he surrendered to authorities.

In December a judge convicted Pemberton of homicide, not the more serious charge of murder as prosecutors sought — and sentenced him to a lighter jail term than what the victim’s family sought.

__

U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton admitted in a Philippine court Monday that he strangled transgender woman Jennifer Laude to death inside a motel room near Manila last October, Al Jazeera reports.

Reports from inside the courtroom indicate that Pemberton is advancing a "trans panic" defense, claiming that upon discovering the 26-year-old Laude to be a transgender woman, the 19-year-old Marine "feared he would be raped," according to Al Jazeera. That fear prompted Pemberton to fly into a violent rage, manually strangling Laude before dragging her lifeless body into the bathroom, according to tweets from Harry Roque, the attorney representing Laude's family.

U.S. Marine Claims 'Trans Panic' in Murder of Trans Filipina Jennifer Laude | Advocate.com