“Tiger Mandingo,” a Tardily Regretful Prosecutor, and the “Viral Underclass”

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Notes

Notes

1 Matthew Weait, “The Criminalisation of HIV Exposure and Transmission: A Global Review Working Paper prepared for the Third Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group,” United Nations Global Commission on HIV and the Law, 7–9 July, 2011.

2 Steven Thrasher, “A Black Body on Trial: The Conviction of HIV-Positive ‘Tiger Mandingo,’” BuzzFeed News, December 1, 2015, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/steventhrasher/a-black-body-on-trial-the-conviction-of-hiv-positive-tiger-m (retrieved June 7, 2019).

3 Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District. State of Missouri v. Michael L. Johnson: “Accordingly, we find that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting recordings of the excerpted recordings of the phone calls Johnson made while in jail. Johnson’s first point is granted, and we reverse and remand for a new trial.” December 20, 2016 https://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=108378 (retrieved June 7, 2019).

4 Carol Galletly and Zita Lazzarini, “Charges for Criminal Exposure to HIV and Aggravated Prostitution Filed in the Nashville, Tennessee Prosecutorial Region 2000–2010,” AIDS and Behavior 17, no. 8 (2013): 2624–36, https://bit.ly/2OduHk5 (accessed June 7, 2019).

5 Amira Hasenbush, Ayako Miyashita, and Bianca Wilson, “HIV Criminalization in California: Penal Implications for People Living with HIV/AIDS (2015),” The Williams Institute, University of California, LA, School of Law, June 2016, https://bit.ly/2y867wz (accessed June 7, 2019).

6 Steven Thrasher, “Tiger Mandingo,” Who Once Faced 30 Years In Prison In HIV Case, Gets Parole”: “In California last fall, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill reducing HIV exposure from a felony to a misdemeanor. And in North Carolina earlier this year, activists successfully lobbied to change that state’s HIV laws to take into account contemporary HIV science, reflecting, for example, that people who are properly medicated cannot transmit the virus.” BuzzFeed News, April 9, 2018, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/steventhrasher/tiger-mandingo-hiv-michael-johnson-parole (retrieved June 7, 2019).

7 Sean Strub, “Prevention vs. Prosecution: Creating a Viral Underclass.” POZ, October 18, 2011, https://www.poz.com/blog/prevention-vs-prosec (accessed July 10, 2019).

8 Pranesh Chowdhury, Linda Beer, Luke Shouse, and Heather Bradley, “Clinical Outcomes of Young Black Men Receiving HIV Medical Care in the United States, 2009–2014”: “Viral Suppression among Young [B]lack Men during 2009–2014 Was Lower Than among the Overall Population Receiving HIV Care in 2013 (36% vs. 68%),” Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, February 13, 2019, https://bit.ly/2CjfAAC (accessed June 7, 2019).

9 Patricia Sweeney, et al., “Association of HIV Diagnosis Rates and Laws Criminalizing HIV Exposure in the United States,”AIDS 31, no. 10 (2017): 1483–8, doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000001501, https://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/toc/2017/06190 (retrieved June 9, 2019).

10 Timothy Lohmar, February 4, 2019: “My name’s Tim Lohmar. I’m the St. Charles prosecutor, I’m also the president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. I agree that the time is now to update these laws that criminalize the behavior that’s been outlined. I had a case a few years ago that got a lot of national attention, and it wasn’t in a good way. I was hamstrung in a sense because I was forced to operate under the current laws that we now have. Which I would agree are antiquated, outdated, and based upon something that science would prove is not accurate. So, I think this is the time to for us to take these considerations I have worked with Representative [Holly] Rehder [a Republican who sponsored the update bill, and who also supports needle exchange] over the past year or so, in trying to help her come up with some of the language that’s in here. That we as prosecutors feel comfortable with. She’s correct that the ‘knowingly’ standard is much more in line with our current criminal statutes, as opposed to our current version of acting in a reckless manner. I think, one of the points I would like to make on behalf of prosecutors statewide, we don’t want to have to use the statute to charge someone with a crime. We are, we would be, looking for ways not to do that. However, the facts present themselves in such a way that we have no choice but to pursue justice by filing a charge, we will do that. We need better tools. House bill 167, in my opinion… satisfies those concerns. It does give us some teeth where teeth are needed, but it also modernizes the laws. I can just tell you again, and I’ll wrap up momentarily: the case I had that received that national attention, it was quite embarrassing, to be honest with you. When I looked at some of the issues that were being raised. Being presented with some of the science, I just was ignorant. So, I’m asking you to support these joint efforts, and your state prosecutors are fully behind.”

11 Fred Rottnek and Jeanette Mott Oxford, Aaron Laxton, the Missouri AIDS Taskforce, the Missouri HIV Criminalization Network, the SERO Project, Sean Strub, Terry Lowman, Carrie E. Foote, PhD, Reginald T. Brown, Peter Staley Jay Blothcer, and JD Davids to Timothy Lohmar, April 21, 2015, https://bit.ly/2TLY3LF (accessed March 15, 2019).

12 Tim Lohmar, “Commentary about Michael Johnson Case Was Inaccurate, Misleading,” St. Louis Democrat, August 15, 2015, https://bit.ly/2TIklyH (accessed June 7, 2019).

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Steven W. Thrasher

Steven W. Thrasher, PhD is the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair of media coverage of sexual and gender minorities at Northwestern University, the first journalism professorship in the world to focus on LGBTQ subjects and scholarship. His writing has been widely published in the New York Times, Guardian, Atlantic, Esquire, Journal of American History, BuzzFeed News, Village Voice, and other academic and journalistic publications. A recipient of grants from the Ford, Sloan and Gannett foundations, Thrasher has been named Journalist of the Year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the American Sociological Association’s journal Contexts. In 2019, he was named one of the 100 most influential and impactful LGBTQ+ people of the year by Out magazine.