American Notes Aids

AIDS breeds panic and paranoia wherever it strikes. Those emotions, along with some legal legerdemain, have led Michigan prosecutors to charge a carrier of the AIDS antibody with assault with intent to murder. The weapon: saliva. Authorities said that Autoworker John C. Richards, 28, scuffled with four Flint, Mich., police officers when they arrested him for drunk driving on Dec. 6. The officers said that Richards became enraged, told them he had AIDS, warned that he was going to infect them and then spat at them. Richards was ordered last week to undergo psychiatric testing.

While medical experts have found no evidence that AIDS can be spread by spitting, prosecutors claim that Richards nevertheless believed he could have infected the officers. Robert Weiss, the chief prosecutor, compared Richards to an assailant armed with a defective gun. Notes University of Michigan Law Professor Yale Kamisar: "If the person really believed he could transmit a deadly disease by spitting at someone, then one could make a case that he is liable for prosecution."