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MARCH 2022
Black & Pink News
Criminalizing A Pandemic By Cody R. (TX) In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to remember the legal ramifications of the other pandemic, HIV/AIDS. Hopefully, you’ll never find yourself in the position of defending someone simply because they have an illness but there are important things you should know in any case. Prior to 1994, the state of Texas had a penal code that made it a third degree felony,
punishable by up to 10 years in prison for a person living with HIV/AIDS to intentionally and without consent, transfer bodily fluids to another (Tex. Penal Code Ann. 22.012 (1987)). Although the state legislature amended the statutes to remove this statute in 1994, PLHIV/AIDS are still prosecuted for HIV exposure under general criminal laws including assault, sexual assault or even attempted murder. The assault statues in Texas make
the use of a deadly weapon an aggravating factor which provides a felony of the second degree for aggravated assault and a felony of the first degree for aggravated sexual assault. To clarify, Texas statutes say a deadly weapon is anything that, in its use or intended use, is capable of causing serious bodily harm, injury or death. Texas courts have held that the “bodily fluids” of a PLHIVAIDS may constitute a deadly weapon even when the alleged conduct poses no known risk of transmitting HIV, despite other cases within Texas that have stated a deadly weapon must pose more than a “hypothetical” chance of harm or injury.
by Roger Peet, courtesy of JustSeeds
Unlike 15 other states which have ”intentional (HIV) exposure” laws, Texas criminalizes PLHIVAIDS on a far broader scale and because HIV/ AIDS is strongly associated with bad behavior or stigmatized populations, such as men who have sex with men, transgender women and people of color, this criminalization tends to put an unfair bias towards these persons. In some states, HIV laws have even harsher sentences than those that cause death. HIV is no picnic, but its completely manageable. Considering it a “deadly weapon” is cruel to PLHIVAIDS who with a pill a day, can live a relatively normal life. These
