Janitor dips genitals in water bottle, gives woman STD

brandon8283 said
Serious rebuttal: there’s obviously precedent for charging assault with a deadly weapon and/or attempted murder for STDs.

Is putting your dick in someone’s water bottle an assault on its own? The “indecent assault” charge tends to imply that the prosecutor believes so.

If it’s an assault, and an STD-infected penis is a deadly weapon when used in the context of sexual acts, then it’s assault with a deadly weapon.

The intent or lack of intent to give an STD is irrelevant, just like if a mugger with a knife never actually intended to stab his victim and the knife was all for show. It’s still an assault with a deadly weapon.

Or perhaps if the mugger had a gun in his waistband and merely opened his jacket to reveal it. Didn’t even put his hands on it. Can he kill someone just by showing he has a gun? No, but it’s still assault with a deadly weapon.

No, I don't think anyone has ever been charged with assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder for spreading herpes.

I think that in some extreme cases, there have been such charges for HIV back when AIDS often resulted in death but that's no longer the case and I don't think those kinds of charging decisions and convictions happen anymore. I think these days most STD related crimes are based on specific statutes related to the transmission of STDs, probably in part due to the difficulty in applying more traditional crimes against a person concepts.

I wasn't saying that intent or lack of intent was material to this part of the analysis, I was saying that it matters if it can't be spread that way. I won't be charged with attempted arson if I try to light my enemy's house on fire using pudding.