An HIV-positive man convicted of spitting into the eye and mouth of a Dallas police officer has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.Source: Associated Press
Because a jury found that Willie Campbell used his saliva as a deadly weapon, the 42-year-old will have to serve half his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He was sentenced Wednesday.
That's not just stupid, but a terrible violation of the law, and human rights.
Of course, it's completely impossible to contract HIV through spit, especially if the spit lands just on someone. I'll admit, it's pretty disgusting to have anyone spit on you, especially a drunk man you're trying to arrest, but come on. Deadly weapons are guns, baseball bats, knives, hangropes, not spit.
If there wasn't a man's life involved here I'd find this almost funny, but someone has been sentenced to 35 years in prison because Texas won't come out of the 70s AIDS panic. Perfect case for the ACLU.
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