Jeremy Merithew had a hook-up in that he will remember for the rest of his life. He met a man on the gay app Adam4Adam. The man came over for sex and left. The reason? Critics of the law called it a stigmatizing remnant of a time when the science of HIV was not fixed and infection was considered a likely death sentence. They went to work and got the Legislature to change the law in The new law created misdemeanors crimes requiring prosecutors to prove a person had an intent to transmit their infection and took actions likely to transmit it.
The new law specifically creates protections for people living with HIV who use a risk reduction method to prevent passing the virus, including condoms or being on HIV medications that suppress the virus. Merithew is fighting back after serving his sentence and is preparing to ask Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer to pardon him. How did we help society by putting him in prison? Hoadley believes Whitmer and her administration should review all convictions under the former felony law and issue pardons for those where a conviction would not be achieved under the new law.
There is a precedent to expunging criminal convictions after a law changes. After Michigan legalized personal possession of marijuana for recreational use in , the state allows those convicted for possession and other non-violent marijuana crimes to seek and expungement of their records.
Despite science clearly demonstrating that a person on medications with an undetectable viral load being unable to transmit HIV, Merithew was prohibited by Kent County Circuit Court Judge James Redford from bringing up the medical facts as a defense in his trial. Prosecutors offered Merithew an opportunity to plead guilty to one count of the disclosure law by having anal sex. But when he refused, they lodged a second charge for oral sex and a charge of using a computer to commit a crime.
