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Willie Campbell of Dallas, Texas was sentenced to 35 years in prison this Wednesday for spitting at the police officer in 2006. Local news say a jury found that HIV positive Campbell used his saliva as a deadly weapon.
According to prior news reports Campbell was arrested in May 2006 for public intoxication. He began resisting and kicking inside the patrol car, Dallas police office Dan Waller testified. AT one point he spat into the eye and mouth of a Dallas police officer.
42-year-old Campbell will have to serve half of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
One thing I don't understand though. Unless he spat blood instead of saliva there is no chance of infection. Human saliva is to acidic for HIV virus, and it actually contains antibodies and not viral particles (taken from Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine)
And since he was drunk there is no point of claiming than he meant to infect the officer. He simply spat at him in anger.
According to the Center For Disease Control there has never been a case of HIV infection from saliva. HIV is an anaerobic virus meaning that it cannot survive outside of the body for very long
I can understand the fear but Dallas court convicted him of harassment of a public servant, which according to Texas penal code, chapter 22, section 11 is a third degree felony with maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
So unless he said that he wanted to infect the police officer, and he had open sores in his mouth at the time, we have a clear case of discrimination of HIV positive person, and the decision based on the stigma and not on the facts.
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