§ 17-10-15 - AIDS transmitting crimes; requiring defendant to submit to HIV test; report of results - Georgia Statutes

O.C.G.A. 17-10-15 (2010)
17-10-15. AIDS transmitting crimes; requiring defendant to submit to HIV test; report of results

(a) Any term used in this Code section and defined in Code Section 31-22-9.1 shall have the meaning provided for such term in Code Section 31-22-9.1.

(b) A victim or the parent or legal guardian of a minor or incompetent victim of a sexual offense as defined in Code Section 31-22-9.1 or other crime which involves significant exposure as defined by subsection (g) of this Code section may request that the agency responsible for prosecuting the alleged offense request that the person arrested for such offense submit to a test for the human immunodeficiency virus and consent to the release of the test results to the victim. If the person so arrested declines to submit to such a test, the judge of the superior court in which the criminal charge is pending, upon a showing of probable cause that the person arrested for the offense committed the alleged crime and that significant exposure occurred, may order the test to be performed in compliance with the rules adopted by the Department of Community Health. The cost of the test shall be borne by the victim or by the arrested person, in the discretion of the court.

(c) Upon a verdict or plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere to any AIDS transmitting crime, the court in which that verdict is returned or plea entered shall require the defendant in such case to submit to an HIV test within 45 days following the date of such verdict or plea. The clerk of the court in such case shall mail, within three days following the date of that verdict or plea, a copy of that verdict or plea to the Department of Community Health.

(d) The Department of Community Health, within 30 days following receipt of the court's order under subsection (b) of this Code section or within 30 days following receipt of the copy of the verdict or plea under subsection (c) of this Code section, shall arrange for the HIV test for the person required to submit thereto.

(e) Any person required under this Code section to submit to the HIV test who fails or refuses to submit to the test arranged pursuant to subsection (d) of this Code section shall be subject to such measures deemed necessary by the court in which the order was entered, verdict was returned, or plea was entered to require involuntary submission to the HIV test, and submission thereto may also be made a condition of suspending or probating any part of that person's sentence for the AIDS transmitting crime.

(f) If a person is required by this Code section to submit to an HIV test and is thereby determined to be infected with HIV, that determination and the name of the person shall be reported to:

(1) The Department of Community Health, which shall disclose the name of the person as necessary to provide counseling to each victim of that person's AIDS transmitting crime if that crime is other than one specified in subparagraph (a)(3)(J) of Code Section 31-22-9.1 or to any parent or guardian of any such victim who is a minor or incompetent person;

(2) The court which ordered the HIV test, which court shall make that report a part of that person's criminal record. That report shall be sealed by the court; and

(3) The officer in charge of any penal institution or other facility in which the person has been confined by order or sentence of the court for purposes of enabling that officer to confine the person separately from those not infected with HIV.

(g) For the purpose of subsection (b) of this Code section, "significant exposure" means contact of the victim's ruptured or broken skin or mucous membranes with the blood or body fluids of the person arrested for such offense, other than tears, saliva, or perspiration, of a magnitude that the Centers for Disease Control have epidemiologically demonstrated can result in transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.

(h) The state may not use the fact that a medical procedure or test was performed on a person under this Code section or use the results of the procedure or test in any criminal proceeding arising out of the alleged offense.