Hamilton man found guilty of murder by spreading HIV

A sad story to say the least. Does a prosecution like this make sense?

I suppose it does act to show the community repugnance for such irresponsible conduct -- and there is no real reason to suppose Aziga had mental issues making it difficult for him to understand what he was doing.

And we prosecute people for getting drunk, driving and then killing people. Drunk drivers who kill seldom if ever intend to harm anyone -- they are just irresponsible and selfish. Perhaps the same thinking applies here.

But somehow it feels different.

Note the public health orders against him that were breached. To say he was reckless does not express his behavior but the suggest he should have been arrested for breaching health orders might start a slippery slope for others who were HIV positive but behaved properly?

Somehow this prosecution troubles me but I cannot say exactly why. Perhaps readers will assist?

Barbara Brown The Canadian Press
Sat, 4 Apr 2009 HAMILTON

— A Hamilton jury rendered a historic legal verdict Saturday, making Johnson Aziga the first HIV-positive man in Canada to be convicted of murder for recklessly spreading the virus that causes AIDS.

Mr. Aziga, 52, of Hamilton, was found guilty as charged of two counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault, as well as being convicted on one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault.

The trial, which began in October, is the first in Canada involving someone being charged with lethally infecting partners with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The nine men and three women on the Superior Court jury started deliberations Thursday and sat for about 25 hours before arriving at their verdict around 5:00 p.m
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...

Mr. Aziga is guilty of endangering the lives of 11 women by having unprotected sex and failing to warn them that he was HIV positive, even though he had been aware of it since 1996 and was under public-health orders to do so.

Seven of the women became infected, two died of AIDS-related cancers and four were exposed but tested negative. One women, identified only as S.B., died of AIDS-related cancers three weeks after police videotaped an interview with her about her relationship with Mr. Aziga.

In the police interview played at trial, S.B. said Mr. Aziga had never told her about his HIV infection during their summer of romance in 2000. "No, he never did. Not at any time," the bed-ridden woman said in a barely audible voice. "Did you ever bring that up?" the officer asks. "Unfortunately not," S.B. replied. In common with other victims, S.B. said she would not have had sex with him had she known he was infected.
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Mr. Aziga, a native of Uganda and a former employee of Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2003.
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