I wrote last year about Iowa's criminal HIV transmission law. At the center of this law was an otherwise healthy HIV-positive man named Nick Rhoades whose medication compliance and healthy lifestyle made his viral load medically undetectable. He had sex -- wearing a condom -- with another man, but didn't tell that man that he is HIV-positive. The man later found out and reported Rhoades to the police. Despite the fact that they practiced safer sex and that his sex partner did not acquire the disease, Rhoades was convicted of "criminal transmission" of HIV and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His felony conviction was eventually reduced to time served, but Rhoades still remains on Iowa's sex offender registry.
Efforts began this session to update Iowa's HIV transmission law. This bill passed and
Gov. Terry Branstad finally signed this bill into law late last month:
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has signed into law a bill... that lessens the penalties for people who unknowingly expose someone to HIV... The HIV bill changes current law and imposes a 25-year prison sentences only when someone intends to transmit a disease without a partner's knowledge.
Under the revised HIV criminal transmission law, Rhoades will still remain a convicted felon, but he will no longer remain on Iowa's sex offender registry effective July 1, 2014.
