From: buckmr@rpi.edu
Subject: Illinois AIDS law ruled unconstitutional
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-Number: 4846
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 11:10:43 -0400

"Copyright 1992 by UPI.
Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup
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	BELLEVILLE, Ill. (UPI) - A judge in St. Clair County Circuit Court
has declared unconstitutional the Illinois law making it a felony to
knowingly trasmit the AIDS virus.
	Circuit Judge James Donovan made his ruling Thursday in dismissing
charges against Carethea Russell, 18, Belleville, who was charged under
the law with four counts of attempting to transmit the virus.
	Russell was charged after a St. Louis man told authorities she had
sex with him last October without telling him she carried the AIDS
virus.
	In a pretrial motion filed this week, public defender Clyde Kuehn
argued on behalf of Russell that the 1989 state law was too vague and
too broad. He said the law could make criminals of medical professionals
who may transmit the virus and that the state's definition of 
``trasmitting'' might include exposure through tears, sweat, sneezing or
urinating.
	Kuehn argued that if the law was intended to bar people from
spreading the disease through sexual contact, it should say so
specifically.
	In his written order, Donovan agreed the law was vague, especially
the provision that prohibited ``intimate contact'' by those who knew
they had the AIDS virus.
	``The court finds that the meaning of intimate contact with another
as defined by the statute is overbroad, does not give adequate notice
and criminalizes theoretical or hypothetical modes of HIV transmission,''
the judge wrote in his order.
	``The medical community has discounted certain modes of transmission
referred to by the defendant, but the medical community cannot exclude
them as possible modes of transmission.
	``The proscribed activities currently recognized by the medical
community that result in transmission should be specifically enumerated
in the statute,'' Donovan wrote.
	Prosecutors had argued the law clearly was aimed at prohibiting the
spread of the virus through sexual intercourse and that criminal charges
never would be pressed for the less likely modes of transmission.
	St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said he would appeal
Donovan's decision. Haida said he was concerned about the possibility
Russell would have unprotected sex with someone else without telling
them about her condition.
	In his order, Donovan gave the state 21 days in which to file an
appeal. He also said it could file other charges against Russell.
	The judge lowered Russell's bail from $25,000 to $20,000. However,
Kuehn said Russell has been unable to get released on bail because she
is subject to a hold order for a parole violation.
---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. 
uunet!rpi.edu!buckmr||buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet||buckmr@rpi.edu||+1 518 276 8910
According to the January 5, 1992 _New York Times_ 0.1% of all abortions in the
United States occur in the third trimester.
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids