U.S. Marine Gets Life for Philippine Rape

A 21-year-old U.S. Marine was sentenced Monday to life imprisonment by a Philippine court in Manila for the rape of a drunken woman in November 2005.

The court convicted Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, 21, of St. Louis, to life in prison — which can be up to 40 years — and acquitted three other Marines, a New York Times correspondent reported.

The Marines claimed in the defense the sex in a van was consensual but Judge Benjamin Pozon disagreed, noting the woman fought Smith off before passing out.

Under the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries, the judge said Smith should be imprisoned in a Manila jail and not turned over to U.S. officials.

It was the first time a U.S. serviceman was convicted of a felony in the Philippines since the U.S. bases were shut down in 1992, the report said.