Not so Deadly Spit

Willie Campbell, a Dallas-area homeless man, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon: his spit. While Campbell was being hauled off for public intoxication, he spit in the mouth and eye of the arresting officer and taunted him by saying he was HIV positive. But while no one really has a problem with granting drunken, spitting bums with extensive criminal records a nice stay in jail, there should be some concern with the deadly weapon charge. Despite what Rick Santorum would have you believe, HIV has never been transmitted through saliva, so there was no threat of infection here. Because of the weapon charge, Campbell won't be eligible for parole until he's completed half his sentence, which seems like a terrible mishandling of justice on the part of people who don't understand medical science. All of these prosecutors deserve a spit in the eye. More details here.