April 6, 2009 | Sex & Society

HIV+ man convicted of murder

52-year-old Johnson Aziga, from Hamilton, Ontario, has been convicted this weekend of first-degree murder for not disclosing his HIV status to partners with whom he engaged in unprotected sex.  Seven women became infected, two died of AIDS-related cancers, and four others have since tested negative.

This makes Aziga the first person in Canada to be charged with murder for HIV nondisclosure.

“Safer sex is about the liberating notion that all people — male and female, top and bottom — are either responsible to protect themselves by insisting on safer sex or to assume the risk that they may become HIV-positive if they don’t," activist and writer Sky Gilbert opined. Other activists fear the decision will actually dissuade people from being tested, living in denial about their disease but not being found culpable for spreading it.

The prosecution disagreed. “Normally, we have no interest in what is going on in the bedrooms of HIV positive individuals,” said Crown Attorney Karen Shea. “But when you have circumstances in which the individual is engaging in conduct knowing full well that he is endangering the health and lives of others it’s not only appropriate but completely warranted to invoke the criminal law.”

Man found guilty of murder for not disclosing HIV status [Xtra.ca]

More debate urged after historic HIV murder verdict [The Vancouver Sun]