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HIV: Criminal Intent

Anthony Whitfield was recently convicted in Olympia in one of the nation's worst HIV assault cases. But his prosecution raises serious questions about who is being charged with spreading the AIDS virus and reveals the problems of trying to police private behavior for the public good.

Comments (3) By Mark D. Fefer Wednesday, Dec 1 2004

Ron Soliman / The Olympian

Anthony Whitfield in court.

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Almost three weeks from now in Olympia, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, Anthony Whitfield, 32, will be sentenced on 17 counts of first-degree assault, the most for anyone in recent state history. His crime: having unprotected sex with 17 different women while knowing he was HIV-positive. Whitfield, an unemployed methamphetamine addict, spent the last several years bouncing around among girlfriends, marrying one, having children with two others, maintaining multiple "long-term" relationships, and having a slew of shorter ones. Though he was informed he was HIV-positive in 1992, he never told his partners, in some instances outright lied about his condition, and often refused to wear condoms. Five of the women have since tested positive for HIV, and one has AIDS. After a two-week trial before a Thurston County judge last month, Whitfield was found guilty on all assault counts.

The case received some crime-of-the-day coverage on local TV news, but was mostly ignored in Seattle and elsewhere. That's surprising, since, based on Seattle Weekly research, no one in America has been charged, let alone convicted, of exposing so many people to the virus. And yet the Whitfield story may be worthy of attention less for the ways it's extreme than for the ways that it's typical. The case raises a number of questions about how HIV "crimes" are being prosecuted generally in the U.S. and how criminal enforcement can or should be used to help contain the AIDS epidemic. Consider the following:

Whitfield is only the third person prosecuted for this crime in Washington since 1997, when legislators and Gov. Gary Locke made deliberate exposure of HIV a Class A felony, like murder and rape. As with Whitfield, the two previous defendants lived outside the urban centers (in Wenatchee and Skagit County, respectively) and their victims were women. Yet the vast majority of our state's HIV transmissions occur in and around Seattle among men who have sex with other men. No one on Capitol Hill has been going to jail, even though a new infection is happening in our city about every day, according to Seattle– King County public health department estimates. The pattern is seen nationally as well: HIV prosecutions are almost exclusively directed at men victimizing women and occur mainly outside the major cities where HIV is most concentrated. "The demographics of the prosecutions do not match the demographics of the epidemic," observes Jonathan Givner, an attorney with the gay advocacy group Lamda Legal in New York.
Because of a focus on heterosexual encounters, HIV law has become yet another criminal arena where minorities are targeted out of proportion to their numbers. Heterosexual transmission is much more common among African Americans than whites, and while there likely are many reasons for this, one is clearly the sky-high rates at which black men are being sent to prison. Prisons are hothouses for HIV and a common place for black men to be infected with the virus. According to trial testimony, Whitfield was infected during a prison rape while serving time in the early '90s. Once he got out, his meth-fueled "player" lifestyle was not just brazen but criminally dangerous; HIV has become one more stop on the cycle of incarceration. According to Seattle Weekly research, about half the defendants in recent HIV prosecutions across the country were black men. (Locally, it's two out of the three.)
Given the scale of the epidemic and the fact that a majority of states, during the last decade, passed laws specifically criminalizing HIV exposure, there have been remarkably few prosecutions. Leaving aside cases of rape, prostitution, etc. (where the behavior was already criminal, regardless of the presence of HIV), Seattle Weekly found about a dozen prosecutions for HIV exposure per year in the U.S. since 2001, a tiny fraction compared to other sex crimes. The laws are "popular as a concept," says Leslie Wolf, a professor at the University of California–San Francisco who studies legal issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. "But after that, there's not much that people are pursuing. There is no state or federal policy on this, so it's kind of haphazard." Meanwhile, Dr. Bob Wood, the HIV/AIDS czar for Public Health–Seattle & King County, says that, based on the studies he's seen, roughly 20 percent of people who know they are HIV-infected are "hiding their status, not using condoms" at least some of the time. Some surveys have put that number as high as 75 percent.
For those few perpetrators who are tried and convicted, punishment can be severe and generally has no connection to whether the victim actually contracts the virus. One 23-year-old HIV-positive man in Iowa City recently received a 25-year sentence for a few days of unprotected sex with a woman who has since tested negative. Washington law, too, prohibits "exposure," without regard to transmission. That makes it different from other crimes, where the outcome affects the penalty: A drunk driver who hits a pedestrian is subject to harsher punishment than someone who's just as dangerously intoxicated but makes it home without incident.

In short, there are many questions to be asked about the fairness of HIV prosecutions—about how the law is applied and against whom—as well as how well these prosecutions are serving the goals of justice and public health for which they're supposedly intended.

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Comments (3)

apostle shada mishe 12/30/2008 3:09:21 PM

THE CURE for HIV/AIDS.......AMBUSH THE IDEA that AMBUSH cures AIDS is being proven by the more than 400 individuals who have taken a dose of 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. The result is that AMBUSH 'KILLS' the virus by causing the protein envelope to rupture and the viral particles are discarded by the white blood cells. AMBUSH is able to 'KILL' the virus that are 'hiding' in the lymph system by its 'natural radioactive' properties. This process allows the body to 'return to normal health' with a corresponding immunity to that or those strains of the virus. What is AMBUSH ? AMBUSH is a radioactive isotope of uranium that is found in the 'palm' plant of which there are more than 3000 species. When ingested, AMBUSH causes the body temperature in the trunk area to rise to about 102 degrees when the individual is sleeping. The preparation takes four hours per batch, which is then given to the individuals for consumption 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. AMBUSH is a herbal preparation in this form but it contains an active ingredient which is a 'NEW' crystalline substance, a drug from the 'palm plant' similarly to ASPIRIN originating from the willow tree bark RESULTS: After 21 days on AMBUSH, ALL the individuals experienced a decrease in viral load to undetectable, an increase in cd4, increase in RBC, an improvement in general health such as more color to the face, decrease in Buffalo hump, an increase in gluteal muscles, a decrease to having no joint pains whereby individuals can bend to touch their toes, and walk up steps are but a few examples. There is also a dramatic increase in their sexual appetite beginning after the first week of therapy DISCUSSION: In any plant concoction such as percolated 'tea', there are 30-40,000 compounds, whi ch would take the scientific community twenty years to isolate one particular ingredient if they knew what they were looking for. The LORD GOD has given me seven steps to isolate the active ingredient, which is soft and metallic in nature and has a carbon- uranium-sulfur-(classified)-phentolamine configuration or structure. This is similar to Federick Kekule and the discovery of the benzene ring where he dreamt the structure. As an antiviral and 'natural radioactivity' producing agent, AMBUSH is also effective against leukemia, lupus and HPV. Here I am saying that I have 'GIVEN' AMBUSH in the same 'strength' and dosage to patients with leukemia, lupus and HPV. A 35 year old male with HIV found it difficult to impossible to urinate was put on 'green tea' and water while the doctors contemplated prostrate surgery. One of the doctors gave him my number , I sent him a supply of AMBUSH an d he has not been given any more ARV's, since taking AMBUSH 18 months ago, is in 'good' health and has expressed a willingness to be examined by HIV investigators like many others who have taken AMBUSH. I have sent this 'IDEA' to most HIV research agencies, scientist of the field, universities, hospitals, clinics, politicians and news agencies to which it is REJECTED because the name of THE LORD GOD is mentioned. He has steered me scientifically through the processes such as which plant and how to produce the active ingredient. What are the odds of a Florida Pharmacist picking a plant would contain the CURE for HIV/AIDS ? I have never charged any of the people for their supply of AMBUSH but a life saving has been spent on the project with NO renumeration from any sources because AMBUSH falls outside the walls of modern medicine and research. PROPOSAL: My proposal is that I PROVE that AMBUSH CURES HIV/AIDS by giving it to a number of END-STAGE or DRUG-RESISTANT people and the scientific community watches their recovery. This proposal addresses the problem in that I have already outlaid the results to be obtained. This IDEA is unconventional in that the scientific community has rejected AMBUSH because I say it is GOD given. Secondly if I wrote it according to certain standards, then it might be peer reviewed. However, THE LORD GOD has also shown me that there are five enzyme systems associated with the virus, reverse transcriptase, protease, fusion and two more of which causes the virus to be AIRBOURNE. This means that without DIVINE intervention mankind and ALL warm- blooded mammals will be extinct in a number of years. The PROOF of what I am saying is found in scientific papers wherein it is found that when the protease cuts the viral strands, it cuts it at DIFFERENT lengths EVERY time, to which it should always be a valine at the end but is a different amino acid every time. This is why it is IMPOSSIBLE to produce a VACCINE. Since this is NOT a hypothesis but there are about 400 individuals who have taken AMBUSH, here lies a vast area in which to check, recheck and confirm that AMBUSH CURES AIDS. Let it be mentioned that during the HIV reproductive cycle, reverse transcriptase converts viral RNA into DNA compatible to human genetic materials. Thus the human DNA has been 'hijacked' and since each person has a DIFFERENT DNA, then the new viral copy is unique to that person which shows that each individual has a DIFFERENT STRAIN of the virus. Consider two HIV positive people swapping viral strains and increasing its complexity with multiple partners. It can also be proposed that they be revisited as proof that the strain or strains that they had were 'killed' at the time of taking AMBUSH considering that a person can catch as many different strains as there are people who are infected by HIV. I am also willing to work with the scientific community in identifying those individuals who took AMBUSH and wish to be identified with this process notwithstanding that some are stigmatized while others are jubilant, Once AMBUSH is verified as being able to accomplish that which is aforementioned then the next stage might be the natural and artificial synthesis of the substance. Finally, if this is accepted or not, believed or not, THE LORD GOD always wins and this is the heavenly truth to which AMBUSH was divinely given to mankind for the CURE of HIV/AIDS and it will be here forever. Apostle Shada Mishe. apostleshadamishe@gmail.com Here is a video taped presentation that I gave at t he Martin Luther King library in Washington http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V53D1w__Po http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPwuwlVBOV0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZejptOwMTzQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqcTgIAhrhc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7HPKcT_iwY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iQfgiYAnw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3RzRS6tJDM
Donnie Pancho 04/04/2008 5:59:26 PM

I agree that the enforcement of this law is viewed more seriously with heterosexuals... why is that? Maybe gay men are just becoming used to knowing more about HIV by knowing other men who have it. I would like to see men who have sex with men brought to justice as well. It makes me very angry as an HIV+ man to know that the same person who infected me is out there infecting others. There is little to nothing I can do about it according to public health, without getting him to come forward and admit to doing this to a handful of young boys including myself.
nicole 01/08/2008 8:01:27 PM

When you have an STD, it can feel like you are all alone in the world. Do you wish there was a place where you didn't have to worry about being rejected or discriminated? Stop feeling you're the only one.... If you have an STD, dating can be daunting...well, relax, we can help! http://www.STDromance.com

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