Comments on Positively Ridiculous

this happened to a guy in NJ in the 90's too.

One less psychotic bum off the street. In a perfect world, the officer would have shot him.

"When lugies are outlawed, only outlaws will hock lugies."

It's called "law". A deadly weapon is a deadly weapon by definition/statute, regardless of the amount of deadly it posseses.
See, e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_weapon

I'd assume the bum has gum disease, in which case he has trace amounts of blood in his saliva... not exactly sanitary or safe by any means.

Not a lawyer but reading TX appeals my bets are that this case, if appealed, may be overturned due to inability to show "capability" of causing death or serious bodily injury.

Dallas Morning News has more details:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/051508dnmetspit.2fc6bdb.html

Given that the man already has a history with the police and jail, he's not on solid ground to begin with.

He was using his HIV status to intimidate the officer and resist arrest, and quite honestly gives off the impression that if he could have transmitted the disease by saliva, he certainly would; the fact that he intended to do harm to the officer, regardless of the effectiveness of it, is a huge strike against him. He may not have actually had a "deadly weapon", but he acted as if his saliva was and used it as if it was, and that's something highly relevant. If you want to get especially nit-picky (which I'm sure the prosecution was), it is theoretically possible to transmit this way if he had enough blood in his saliva and the cop had an open sore in his mouth or on his face; a ludicrous long-shot, to be sure, but just as exploitative of the ignorance around HIV transmission and AIDS in general as spitting in the cop's eyes and then turning around and say "I have AIDS!"

In short, while I have no love for cops, this guy gets no sympathy.

sorry, saliva isn't a deadly weapon. even HIV+ saliva. this has been known for, oh, a couple decades now.

Doesn't matter. If I rob a bank, it doesn't matter if I have a real gun in my pocket or just my finger. If the note says "I have a gun" I'm in deep doo-doo.

At least he's not homeless anymore, huh?

I'm guessing he doesn't mind being in jail, since he's homeless.

Having never been either, I'm curious to know whether it is worse to be homeless or jailed. On the one hand, you have the freedom to roam about and be as crazy as you please; on the other, you get fed regularly and have a relatively safe place to sleep at night. Anyone?

I think I'll save my compassion for some other homeless person. One that doesn't go around trying to purposely infect other people with HIV. Yeah, it's not likely he'd ever succeed in actually infecting somebody by spitting on them, but he's TRYING to give it to other people, which makes him something of a douche.

Sarah, I've been both. They both suck more than you can possibly imagine. Homeless is worse.

There's no IQ test to be on a jury.

But you do have to support capital punishment for cattle rustling and anyone DWB.

Fuck the bum,

I am with Poe. It's too bad the cop didn't shoot the shit head.

@4 - Brilliant. Next time I'm in court attempting to defend a client from whatever bullshit enhancement the prosecution has thrown at them for pure political gain, I'll make sure to look the judge straight in the eye and cite wikipedia.

@7 - Fortunately, in this country, you go to trial on current charges, not previous ones. It is entirely irrelevant to the current charge that "he has a history with the police and jail." What is the travesty here is the completely idiotic deadly weapon enhancement, not the assault charge. His attorney, undoubtedly an overworked, underpaid public defender for whom I have sympathy, still should have known better and beat the deadly weapon enhancement.

I have to agree with the many of the posters here: the man lost my sympathy the second he actively tried to infect another person with HIV, regardless of how ineffective the attempt turned out to be. Though he may have used the wrong bodily fluid this time- who is to say that he wouldn't manage to get it right the next time?

I agree with Dan that it is not a good message to preach false facts: saliva does not, in fact, carry the disease. BUT: the intent was there, and that alone means this man deserves the jail time/psychiatric help.

Absolutely shocking.

@16
we are not his defense lawyers and we find him guilty of trying to inflict fear of harm on someone just doing their job. the perp is an asshole in other words. and though the law says you can't bring in past charges many folks think the law is an asshole, too. in every other arena of life we judge everyone based on their entire record of truthfulness and creaating havoc in general.

I'm waiting for the new SPIKE TV reality cop show where a highly trained and well armed team of agents take down rude and unsightly homeless people.

If I walk into a bank and tell people I have a gun (even if I don't), I should be charged. If I walk into a bank and tell people that I'm going to shoot them with my balloon, I should be taken to a psych ward. This guy belongs in a pysch ward. In terms of homeless vs. jail, I've worked with homeless people who have gone to jail. They say that jail is worse. If homeless people want to be in jail, they would be committing crimes to get there. This guy tried to avoid jail, which tells me he prefers homelessess. I would choose homelessness, as do most of the homeless people in America.

So ... the absence of a deadly weapon has no bearing on a conviction for "harrassment with a deadly weapon."

It's obvious what happened. He was a habitual offender, and the prosecutor's office saw an easy way of taking care of a problem.

Only issue is, to do so, they charged the man with something of which he was innocent. Saliva is not deadly. They wouldn't have tried that on a first-time offender, because who sees the need for putting a first-time offender away for 35 years because he drunkenly spat at a cop?

Ridiculous. Should have been thrown out. I do have sympathy for him. Obviously he was an asshole -- obviously he ruined some cops' day, and he's obviously habitually violent. But 35 years for spitting at a man?

Talk about the invisible masses.

Saliva might not be deadly, but blood can carry HIV. And if he's homeless, the odds are excellent that he has gum disease and there is blood in his saliva. It was perfectly reasonable for a cop to be afraid of that.

Seems to me that a guy who goes around making a credible threat of infecting someone with HIV is guilty of "harassment with a deadly weapon".

Given that it happened in Texas, the perp is lucky he wasn't sent to the chair...