FACED UP TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON MERELY BECAUSE OF THEIR MEDICAL CONDITION
According to a press release issued by the United States Department of Justice in mid-February, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) allegedly discriminated against those sex workers who were impacted by the human immunodeficiency virus (or “HIV”), by imposing harsher criminal penalties.
When prostitutes were criminally prosecuted, charges were increased from a misdemeanor (up to six months in prison and $500 fine) to a felony (up to 15 years in prison and $15,000 fine) merely based on the individual's HIV status, rather than predicated on “any actual risk of harm.”
Believing that such policy and practice violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the DOJ filed suit in the United States District Court, Western District of Tennessee, seeking monetary penalties and injunctive relief, together with a declaration that the Tennessee’s criminal prosecutions were violative of federal law.
In a written statement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division noted that “The enforcement of state criminal laws that treat people differently based on HIV status alone and that are not based on actual risks of harm, discriminate against people living with HIV …. People living with HIV should not be subjected to a different system of justice based on outdated science and misguided assumptions. This lawsuit reflects the Justice Department’s commitment to ensuring that people living with HIV are not targeted because of their disability.”
How’s that for sick?
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