Unprotected sex was the crime that will put Sundiata Basir in jail for 21 years. This may sound excessive, but Basir, a former D.C. government employee, is HIV positive. These actions are unforgivable, and we encourage the District of Columbia to continue aggressively prosecuting crimes of this nature.
This is not a case of one lapse of judgment. Basir had repeated unprotected sex with at least seven women, including two minors, without ever disclosing his HIV status.
Because D.C. law does not specifically address the crime of exposing sexual partners to HIV, Basir was charged with aggravated assault, cruelty to children and child sexual abuse, according to the Washington Post. As defined by D.C. law, these charges were appropriate to the case.
It is clear that Basir’s crime constitutes aggravated assault in the District. D.C. code says that someone has committed this offense when, “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, that person intentionally or knowingly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of serious bodily injury to another person, and thereby causes serious bodily injury.” According to the Post, four of Basir’s sexual partners consequently contracted HIV.
Basir also clearly committed acts constituting cruelty to children, which is essentially aggravated assault of a minor, and child sexual abuse. To commit the latter act, a person need only engage in a sexual act with a child more than four years younger???Basir went much farther than that. He married a 17-year-old in 2002 without disclosing his HIV status to her. He also fathered seven children with six different women during the period between his diagnosis with HIV and his arrest in 2003, according the Post.
Basir’s actions were irresponsible and depraved, particularly in a city where approximately one in 20 residents are HIV positive, according to the Whitman-Walker Clinic. The seriousness of his crime has called into question D.C.’s lack of a law that specifically criminalizes exposing sexual partners to HIV. A number of states have passed laws such laws in recent years.
However, HIV-specific laws present a number of problems, according to Jen Sinton, the HIV Project staff attorney at Lambda Legal, a national gay rights advocacy organization. “Laws that single out people with HIV for criminal punishment deter people from seeking testing and treatment,” she said. She added that “criminalization sends a stigmatizing message.”
D.C. law was sufficient to send Basir to jail for 21 years, and other depraved human beings who expose sexual partners to HIV without their knowledge can similarly be prosecuted under charges of aggravated assault. The District should continue to prosecute this crime aggressively under existing laws, rather than singling out HIV-positive patients for persecution.
