http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/10/20/aziga-trial.html?ref=rss
In this case, a man with HIV was told by public health officials to have sex with a condom and tell any partners his status, but he did neither and two women have died of aids related complications. Nine other women claim he had sex with them and never disclosed his condition.
This is a precedent setting case, hence the discussion. There have been other cases where men have been successfully prosecuted in Canada for sexual assualt, on the premise that the women may have consented to sex, but if they were not made aware of the man’s HIV status they could not give proper consent for sex. One of the people found guilty of this was a former CFL football player.
But there is a huge gap between sexual assault and murder.
Intent is usually key to assessing guilt. Clearly, he did not intend to kill his victims. On the other hand he clearly and consistently practised very risky behavious that got two people killed.
What do you think? Can sex be murder?
James
