A US Marine convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman was deported after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence in the Philippines.
Lance Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton said in a farewell message that he was “extremely grateful” to President Rodrigo Duterte for pardoning him and expressed his “most sincere sympathy” to the family of Jennifer Laude, whom he was convicted of killing in 2014 after finding out that she was a transgender in a motel northwest of Manila.