Pemberton lawyers determined to get acquittal, bail

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines – The lawyers of convicted US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton are determined to seek acquittal, a reduction of the sentence or at least a grant of bail.

In a 47-page comment submitted by defense lawyers Rowena Garcia-Flores and Filemon Ray Javier, they said the prosecution failed to address the existence of circumstances showing that another person caused the death of Filipino transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude.

The defense cited pieces of evidence, among them that Laude was seen clutching a piece of jewelry when he was found dead on the night of Oct. 11, 2014.

The jewelry did not belong to either Laude or Pemberton, they pointed out.

They said there is another DNA profile found on Laude, which the prosecution failed to account for due to “insufficient amount of generic data.”

The prosecution in their comment has argued that there was no evidence of another killer and the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) should dismiss the motion of the defense to reverse its Dec. 1, 2015 verdict.

Pemberton was found guilty of homicide and sentenced to six to 12 years imprisonment.

The American was turned over to the custody of the National Penitentiary in a special facility inside the Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo.

The defense said Pemberton’s sentence should be reduced in the presence of mitigating circumstances.

They added Pemberton should be granted bail and the amount of damages to the Laude family should be clarified if the court’s Dec. 1 decision is not changed.

The prosecutors, however, said Pemberton’s application for bail should be denied because there is no doubt Pemberton killed Laude.

The prosecution also said the probability of Pemberton jumping bail is high.

The Supreme Court has dismissed with finality the petition of the Laude family to transfer Pemberton to a regular jail following his conviction for homicide.

Pemberton will remain in his detention cell at the Camp Aguinaldo.