BILL REQ. #:  H-0762.2 

Read first time 01/22/13.   Referred to Committee on Public Safety.

     AN ACT Relating to eliminating the disparate treatment of HIV in the criminal justice system; amending RCW 9A.36.011, 9A.36.021, and 70.24.140; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 9A.36.011 and 1997 c 196 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A person is guilty of assault in the first degree if he or she, with intent to inflict great bodily harm:
     (a) Assaults another with a firearm or any deadly weapon or by any force or means likely to produce great bodily harm or death; or
     (b) Administers, exposes, or transmits to or causes to be taken by another, poison((, the human immunodeficiency virus as defined in chapter 70.24 RCW,)) or any other destructive or noxious substance; or
     (c) Assaults another and inflicts great bodily harm.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, "destructive or noxious substance" includes, but is not limited to, fluid infected with a disease, the normal course of which if untreated is death or serious bodily injury or harm.
     (3) Assault in the first degree is a class A felony.

Sec. 2   RCW 9A.36.021 and 2011 c 166 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A person is guilty of assault in the second degree if he or she, under circumstances not amounting to assault in the first degree:
     (a) Intentionally assaults another and thereby recklessly inflicts substantial bodily harm; or
     (b) Intentionally and unlawfully causes substantial bodily harm to an unborn quick child by intentionally and unlawfully inflicting any injury upon the mother of such child; or
     (c) Assaults another with a deadly weapon; or
     (d) With intent to inflict bodily harm, administers to or causes to be taken by another, poison or any other destructive or noxious substance; or
     (e) With intent to commit a felony, assaults another; or
     (f) Knowingly inflicts bodily harm which by design causes such pain or agony as to be the equivalent of that produced by torture; or
     (g) Assaults another by strangulation or suffocation.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, "destructive or noxious substance" includes, but is not limited to, fluid infected with a disease, the normal course of which if untreated is death or serious bodily injury or harm.
     (3)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, assault in the second degree is a class B felony.
     (b) Assault in the second degree with a finding of sexual motivation under RCW 9.94A.835 or 13.40.135 is a class A felony.

Sec. 3   RCW 70.24.140 and 1988 c 206 s 917 are each amended to read as follows:
     It is unlawful for any person who has a sexually transmitted disease, ((except HIV infection,)) when such person knows he or she is infected with such a disease and when such person has been informed that he or she may communicate the disease to another person through sexual intercourse, to have sexual intercourse with any other person, unless such other person has been informed of the presence of the sexually transmitted disease.