July 22, 2014

USA: Prostitute With AIDS Charged With Knowingly Spreading HIV

Inquistr news
written by Staff
Sunday July 6, 2014

A prostitute named Antionette Clark is being charged with the crime of knowingly exposing her clients to the HIV virus.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, a woman named Kirsty Edmondson made a sex tape next to the dead body of her murder victim, and even posted selfies online for everyone to see.

Columbia police say they caught 20-year-old Clark allegedly posted an online ad related to sex. According to the probable cause statement, an undercover cop arrested her after she agreed to have sex for money.

But then the case became even worse:
“Originally charged with prostitution, a misdemeanor, in late June, Antionette L. Clark now faces the felony of knowingly being infected with HIV while performing the act of prostitution after prosecutors amended the case this week. Columbia resident Clark was arrested June 19 at a hotel in the 900 block of Port Way in east Columbia during an undercover operation.”
Clark was originally charged with misdemeanor prostitution but when she admitted she knew she was HIV positive the prosecutors amended the charges to include knowingly being infected with HIV while performing the act of prostitution.

The case is a big deal for the area since Boone County only has 221 people infected with HIV, which represents 0.0013 percent of the population according to a 2013 census. Andrea Waner, spokeswoman for the health department, does point out that symptoms can sometimes take years to show up, but it is still pretty rare for anyone to knowingly expose anyone to the risk of contracting HIV:
“I think that overall people living with HIV are responsible and are taking precautions to protect their own health from other issues and also to protect the health of people around them.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 1.2 million Americans are HIV-positive in the United States, but only 940,000 know this to be the case. 34 states have made it illegal to knowingly spread the virus and in the worst cases some people have been sentenced to many years in prison, with some people even claiming the death penalty was necessary.

What do you think is a reasonable punishment for someone who knowingly spreads the HIV virus without warning others? Or do you think it should be a crime at all?

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