Last month, District Judge Ron Clark added an additional ten years to the sentence of an HIV + federal prisoner who bit a correctional officer on the arm. Clark stated that “[t]here was a very real risk that the victim could have contracted a disease for which there is no cure, and which resulted in death.”

In U.S. v. Studnicka, 2006 WL 2959528 (E.D. Texas, Oct. 12, 2006), District Judge Ron Clark ordered that an additional ten years be added to the sentence of Sean Allen Studnicka, an HIV+ federal prisoner in Beaumont who “rushed out of his cell and bit Lieutenant Rayburn on the arm.”

Studnicka pled guilty to forcibly assaulting a correctional officer, and under the plea agreement stipulated to a level 15 offense under the old guidelines. But Judge Clark opined that the base level should be raised by nine points on the grounds of “use of a dangerous weapon” and “the degree of injury to the victim.” Officer Rayburn has not tested HIV+.

Read more about this case in “Federal Judge Adds Ten Years To Sentence of HIV+ Prisoner Who Bit Guard” on page 16 of November’s Lesbian/Gay Law Notes.

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