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Criminal Law
Scenario 1: Is it considered homicide when a person who knows he or she has HIV deliberately and knowingly infects another person who then dies as a result of contracting AIDS?
To answer this question there is a precedent for considering it murder / homicide, and that case happened in Canada. Ugandan-born Johnson Aziga was convicted of first degree murder for having "unprotected sex without telling 13 women," and two of those victims died of AIDS (Jonathan Turley).
Attorney Turley writes that there are twenty-one states that have laws on the books that make it criminal to knowingly infect another with HIV. In California, Turley points to statute #120291, which relates to infecting another person with HIV:
"Any person who exposes another to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by engaging in unprotected sexual activity when the infected person knows at the time of the unprotected sex that he or she is infected with HIV, has not disclosed his or her HIV-
positive status, and acts with the specific intend to infest the other person with...
Hall explains that according to federal criminal law, the intentional transmission of a disease (like HIV) can be criminal. "…Passing a disease to another, if intentional, is either attempted murder, if the disease is not passed to the victim, or murder, if the disease is successfully past, and causes the death of the victim" (Hall, 2011, p. 103).
If Barbie does not die, then presumably the statute #120291 (or a similar statute) comes into play, and the charges could be attempted murder. "Homicide" involves the killing of one human being by another human being. The "general intent" relates to the fact that the defendant in a murder trial "…places himself in a general state of mine to incur criminal liability," and while in that state of mine did indeed commit a criminal offense" (lectlaw.com). This is different than "specific intent" where it was clear that the person intended to kill someone.
Scenario 2: What is the most serious offense Lori can be convicted of?
She can possibly be convicted of manslaughter. According to a report in The Guardian,…
Works Cited
Hall, Daniel E. (2011). Criminal Law and Procedure. Independence, KY: Cengage Learning.
Laville, Sandra. (2010). Assisted suicide guidelines: family can still fact prosecution. The Guardian. Retrieved January 23, 2013, from http://www.guardian.co.uk.
Shouse Law Group. (2010). California Rape Law. Retrieved January 23, 2013, from http://www.shouselaw.com.
The Lectric Law Library. (2010). Intent, Specific & General / Criminal Liability Basics.
Lectlaw.com. Retrieved January 23, 2013, from http://www.lectlaw.com.
from http://jonathanturley.org.
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