HIV-positive man sentenced 35 years for spitting at officer

Green Lantern · #1 05-15-2008, 08:19 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/...sitive_suspect

HIV-positive man sentenced 35 years for spitting at officer

DALLAS - 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.
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Wow! 35 years for spit! A little excessive don't you think?

Naomi · #2 05-15-2008, 09:02 AM

and you can murder someone in cold blood and be out in 6 years

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Roogle · #3 05-15-2008, 09:04 AM

Thats way too much. If i spit at a cop. (which i would never do. I would rather fight than spit.) I'd deserved to get tazed, or hit on. But not 35 years. It's a fact you can't get HIV through spit let alone spit exposed to the air.

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Pythoness · #4 05-15-2008, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roogle

Thats way too much. If i spit at a cop. (which i would never do. I would rather fight than spit.) I'd deserved to get tazed, or hit on. But not 35 years. It's a fact you can't get HIV through spit let alone spit exposed to the air.

Does it matter if he didn't KNOW that? How much is intent worth?

Roogle · #5 05-15-2008, 10:34 AM

I would give him time for spitting even with intent, but not 35 years! Rapists serve less than 10.

Pythoness · #6 05-15-2008, 10:36 AM

Yeah but rapists usually get SENTENCED to more, right? They just don't serve that much.

Betting the same thing will happen here. He was SENTENCED to 35. How long he's actually in for will probably be drastically less.

Roogle · #7 05-15-2008, 10:39 AM

Quote:

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.

17 years for spit doesn't well with me

Green Lantern · #8 05-15-2008, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pythoness

He was SENTENCED to 35. How long he's actually in for will probably be drastically less.

From the article - 42-year-old will have to serve half his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

wendy · #9 05-15-2008, 10:42 AM

I know that I'm making a grand assumption here, but I would hope that the jury would be a mix of at least partly intelligent people (it did say that this was decided by a jury, didn't it?) and being that they determined that he used his saliva as a weapon, I would think that there HAS to be more to this story than we are seeing here. I'm sure I could be wrong, but I would hope that for such a tough sentence that there is something going on that we aren't privy to.

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Pythoness · #10 05-15-2008, 10:43 AM

I'm sayin.. if the guy is a) stupid enough to believe that he could give someone HIV by spitting on them and b) has so little value for life that he's willing to use his disease (which is pretty horrendous, btw) as a weapon, then 17 years is not long enough IMO.

I don't care if he spit on a cop or the guy next door with intent to give them a long, slow, horrible, painful death.

We don't need people running around DELIBERATELY trying to spread HIV. Even if they're dumb about it.

HIV-positive man sentenced 35 years for spitting at officer

National News