The case of Jennifer Laude
A US marine, a murdered trans woman, a verdict with a catch: the case of Jennifer Laude in the Philippines.
On 1 December 2015, a regional court in Olongapo announced a verdict that the Philippines had been waiting for for more than a year. US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton was found guilty of killing the trans woman Jennifer Laude.
In October 2014, Pemberton had met the 26-year-old in a bar and gone with her to a motel. Shortly afterwards, Laude was found lifeless in the bathroom, strangled and slumped over the toilet bowl. Pemberton said he had only realised in the room that she was trans.
The case quickly became a national political issue. Pemberton was in the country for a joint exercise, and the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US governed who could hold an accused soldier. Instead of sitting in a Philippine prison, he was held in a guarded area at a military base in Manila. For many in the country, this symbolised how unequally the two states treated each other.
The court sentenced him to six to twelve years in prison. Not for murder, however, but for homicide, because it did not consider the elements of murder to be met. The family spoke of an incomplete victory. Later, the maximum sentence was even reduced to ten years.
That was not the end of the story. In September 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte pardoned the soldier. A few days later, Pemberton was flown to the United States on a military aircraft. Laude's relatives and queer organisations reacted with outrage.
For the queer community in the Philippines, Jennifer Laude remains the face of violence against trans women to this day. Her name stands for an uncomfortable question: how much is a trans woman's life worth when the perpetrator has a powerful state behind him?