Man Sentenced To 35 Years For Spitting At Cop

[thegayhare]

HIV-Pos Man Sentenced To 35 Years For Spitting At Cop
by The Associated Press

Posted: May 15, 2008 - 10:30 am ET

(Dallas, Texas) 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.

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.

Campbell was being arrested in May 2006 for public intoxication when he began resisting and kicking inside the patrol car, Dallas police office Dan Waller testified.

Campbell was convicted of harassment of a public servant.

this is just ignorant and stupid.

not only would the chances of infection like this be slim to none

The man was drunk so saying he knowingly wielded his saliva as a deadly weapon is stretching things a bit 

[Brunhidden]

even my deranged mind never thought of a lougie as a deadly weapon

[schizo]

I was always told in my health class that one could not be infected by HIV through saliva,which if true this all the more idiotic.

[Ryudo Lee]

I was always told in my health class that one could not be infected by HIV through saliva,which if true this all the more idiotic.

I was told the same thing.  Or rather it would take a helluva lot of saliva, a whole lot more than just a loogie, to pass on the virus.

[Don]

That's ridiculous, 35 years is a longer sentence then if he would've actually killed the guy.
What a world we live in...

[rabid_fox]

And lepers should be locked up too.

[Darkmoon]

That's ridiculous, 35 years is a longer sentence then if he would've actually killed the guy.
What a world we live in...

Well, sentencing is stiffer for crimes against cops.

[Raffe]

Did he have a cut in his mouth or something to have blood present in the saliva?

[Brunhidden]

he would then also have to spit directly into an open cut

repeatedly




easy for people to forget that the HIV virus dies almost instantly outside of the human body

[Raffe]

plenty of blood vessels in eye and mouth.
Still need blood in his own mouth to do anything.

[Hanii Puppy]

That's ridiculous, 35 years is a longer sentence then if he would've actually killed the guy.
What a world we live in...

Well, sentencing is stiffer for crimes against cops.

Corruption ftl :\

i suppose this means it's now illegal to have any kind of infectious disease and can be charged under "Possession of arms with intent of assault"

[Alondro]

That's ridiculous, 35 years is a longer sentence then if he would've actually killed the guy.
What a world we live in...

Well, sentencing is stiffer for crimes against cops.

Corruption ftl :\

i suppose this means it's now illegal to have any kind of infectious disease and can be charged under "Possession of arms with intent of assault"

Oooo... I like that idea!  It fits in nicely with my intention of purging the inferior!  *ie, everyone who is not Charles*   

[Sofox]

His lawyer must have sucked.

By the way, its this sort of a theme we have going here? Posting stories about idiotic things that happen in America?

[Ryudo Lee]

Welcome to the internet, Sofox.

[Rakala]

Yeah, the internet is for the outraged, the emo, and porn.

[Alondro]

Yeah, the internet is for the outraged, the emo, and porn.

Mmmmm... outraged emos doing pornographic things.. 

[Lushin]

Well seeing as he knowly did this hoping to infect the cop. Maybe he was bleeding from the mouth? Besides it's always something the cops worry about. Yay 35 years if kinda stupid but spitting on anyone is considered assault if done on purpose. So they more than likely considered it assault on a police office.

[Jack McSlay]

Next time we know, you're going to need a weapon license if you get a lethal disease.

plenty of blood vessels in eye and mouth.
Still need blood in his own mouth to do anything.

Not enough. The skin won't just absorb the blood, there has to be a bleeding cut somewhere, and somehow the blood would have to flow in while the cut makes it flow out of the body.

In other words, he would have to spit so hard the speed of the spit would make a cut on his skin in which the virus could flow, and that is assuming he spits only blood and no saliva, because the saliva would dillute the blood and make the spit thicker, thus harder to infect.

[Brunhidden]

and i wish i was able to put together a 'lethal injection' joke that made sense here

[Toric]

I support this sentence wholeheartedly. Clearly this man had not been miserable enough. /sarcasm

I would really need to see more about this before forming a serious opinion. The article snippet says the guy spit in the cop's eye and mouth. We don't know if either of those had cuts or if the mouth perhaps had a sore. From the way the article reads, it seems the guy was aiming for the cop's face, but it isn't outright stated. Anyway, yeah, 35 years seems excessive when the only charge listed is "harassment of a public servant."

[King Of Hearts]

...with enough spit, the virus can be transfered, but were talking insane amount of spit here.

Not sure on how common law in America works, but being intoxicated can either be a mitigating or an aggravating circumstance.

[LionHeart]

I remember seeing a program on AIDS once, where they mentioned that it would take about 7 litres of saliva to transfer the virus. That's about a bucket full.

[Brunhidden]

people are just waaaaaaay too afraid of AIDS and the HIV virus nowadays.

i remember highschool, not all that long ago, and we had a guest speaker at least twice a year. one of them, i cant remember what they were talking about other then one line where he told us a rethorical situation that in gym class a kid got a bad cut, and because there were no sterile gloves approved for the handling of blood in the room the correct thing to do was to let him BLEED TO DEATH SCREAMING FOR HELP not two feet away from you.

yes, that was the correct thing to do, because little timmy MIGHT have had AIDS, and you MIGHT have had an open cut or sore on your hand, or possibly even touch your eye or suck on your bloody finger after tending to his wounds but before going to wash and apply rubbing alcohol or whatnot.

great value system you're putting on kids- i was raised in a way where you would have lept to save another persons life, even if there was a chance of you dying immediately because of it, and now they're saying that the slight possibility that you could catch a disease that will kill you 20 years down the road is reason enough to just let someone die in agony.

you know what, if i were there i could not live with myself for having done that, and would gladly die in 20 years time if it meant i was able to save a life. in a way i would die a hero, a dumb hero, yes, but a hero in a way.

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.

[Rakala]

Yeah. Pretty much the same way I was raised.

[gh0st]

at least he wasn't fined half a billion dollars for pirating music...

still sickness or not somebody gets hurt or is about to you step in and protect that person, seriously so it's a little bit of blood big deal it's still better than sitting there watching the other person die! also how far is too far for a police officer, i mean there is a certain police man (no names today sorry) around were i live and he squeals his tires at every light. are we allowed to press charges if a police officer stops into the local 7 eleven to get some alcohol? if not then i'm moving to canada, from what i here they may still screw you over but at least they are polite about it.

still what kind of a messed up world is it when your punished more for stealing music off the internet than killing your neighbor in a drive by... just wrong...

[Nelix]

Well, He did have HIV, but I doubt the Police officer will catch it. That Virus is rather hard to catch. 35 years probably would've been more realistic if the Police officer died. as the spit ripped straight through his skull, leaving a tendons of muscles and skull fragment's drip from the exit wound. But I'm ignoring some basic laws of physics here...

[Brunhidden]

i suddenly have the mental image of a man robbing a bank by claiming he has HIV and will spit at anyone who tries to stop him

[jakshep3]

that's rediculous. You can't catch HIV from saliva. the only way the cop could have caught it is if the spitter in question had a bleeding gum, or something stupid like that.

[Brunhidden]

that's rediculous. You can't catch HIV from saliva. the only way the cop could have caught it is if the spitter in question had a bleeding gum, or something stupid like that.

i believe, sir, that was the whole point of half the thread in that the charge was absurd and ill-informed

[Kasarn]

They knew that the cop was unlikely to catch HIV; that's why the guy was charged with harassment rather than assault.

Now, HIV/AIDS is an incurable, degenerative and, ultimately, terminal disease. If somebody knowingly engages in behaviour that exposes other people to HIV without their informed consent and the other person is infected, then they're up on manslaughter or murder (Texas does not have legislation regarding transmission of HIV). Thus a HIV postive person who is deliberately threatening another person with infection could be considered to be wielding a deadly weapon. That is what this guy did, he spat on the cop's face and taunted him about catching HIV.

As to the 35 year sentence, Texas has a habitual offender statute, otherwise known as the three strikes law, and he was on his third strike. If found guilty of harassment with a deadly weapon (or whatever), he was going to be sentenced to 25 years regardless. However, while awaiting trial in prison, he assaulted two cops and two inmates in some unspecified manner. Judging from the comments from the prosecution, this undoubtedly encouraged them to push for a harsher sentence.


Perhaps the sentence was harsh and the case may spread misinformation about HIV/AIDS, but I'm having a hard time feeling much sympathy for the guy.