News & Commentary

If a person living with HIV in Ohio is convicted of a crime, they may automatically receive a harsher sentence just because they have HIV. These punishments are applied without regard to the facts of how HIV can be spread. Even worse, they actively hinder efforts to prevent new infections. HIV Criminalization Laws Ignore Science Unlike when HIV criminalization laws were passed, we now know how HIV spreads and have much more accurate measurements of the risk associated with certain sexual activities. The chart below shows risk rates for contracting HIV without the use of any preventative measures, such as condoms or antiretroviral therapy. Used with permission from The Center for HIV Law and Policy Criminal laws in Ohio take none of this information into account. Instead, they automatically enhance charges and sentencing for people living with HIV and criminalize behaviors that pose zero risk for spreading HIV. For example, it is illegal in Ohio to loiter with the intent to solicit someone to engage in sexual activity. For most people, this crime is a third degree misdemeanor. For a person living with HIV, it is a fifth degree felony. To put it in perspective, that is the difference between spending 30 days in jail and spending six to twelve months in prison and carrying a felony record.

Cassie Chenoweth is a high school intern with the ACLU of Ohio.

Many would like to quickly move forward now that a grand jury has decided not to indict the Cleveland police officers involved in the tragic death of Tamir Rice, the 12 year old child who was shot in less than one second while playing in a park. But we cannot move past the death of Tamir. Instead, we should focus on understanding how the young boy was perceived before he was killed, how he was characterized post-mortem, and the history that allows that negative characterization to prevail today. Age of Justification Following the death of Tamir Rice, much attention was paid to his size. The Cleveland Police Patrolmen Association president said “Tamir Rice is in the wrong. He’s menacing. He’s 5-feet-7, 191 pounds. He wasn’t that little kid you’re seeing in pictures. He’s a 12-year-old in an adult body.” After the decision not to indict the officers was reached, the prosecutor commented that Tamir’s size made him appear much older for his age. The fixation on the size of black bodies dates back to America’s days of slave auctions, where size was exploited for value and profit. Adultification and attempts to justify physical attacks against black children in America is not new either. In fact, being young did not protect Black children from being lynched in America. From the late 1800s to 1950s Black boys and girls as young as 8 years of age were hanged to their deaths from trees. One such child was 14 year old Emmitt Till, killed in 1955.

Diana Mairose is a voting rights advocate who works as an Advocacy Support Advisor for Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services.