(A) An inmate, a detainee, a person taken into custody, or a person under arrest, who attempts to throw or throws body fluids including, but not limited to, urine, blood, feces, vomit, saliva, or semen on an employee of a state correctional facility or local detention facility, a state or local law enforcement officer, a visitor of a state correctional facility or local detention facility, or any other person authorized to be present in a state correctional facility or local detention facility in an official capacity is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned not more than fifteen years. A sentence under this provision must be served consecutively to any other sentence the inmate is serving. This section shall not prohibit the prosecution of an inmate for a more serious offense if the inmate is determined to be HIV-positive or has another disease that may be transmitted through body fluids.
(B) A person accused of a crime contained in this section may be tested for a blood borne disease within seventy-two hours of the crime if a health care professional believes that exposure to the accused person's body fluid may pose a significant health risk to a victim of the crime.
(C) This section does not apply to a person who is a "patient" as defined in Section 44-23-10(3).
HISTORY: 1997 Act No. 136, Section 6; 2002 Act No. 238, Section 1; 2003 Act No. 18, Section 1; 2010 Act No. 237, Section 82, eff June 11, 2010.
Effect of Amendment
The 2010 amendment rewrote subsection (A) and deleted subsection (D) relating to the definition of "local correctional facility".