Criminal law. A crime of maiming — disabling, dismembering, or disfiguring — a person, intentionally or maliciously.
California Criminal Jury Instructions:
801. Mayhem
The defendant is charged [in Count ______] with mayhem.
To prove that the defendant is guilty of mayhem, the People must prove that the defendant unlawfully and maliciously:
[1. Removed a part of someone’s body(;/.)] [OR] [2. Disabled or made useless a part of someone’s body and the disability was more than slight or temporary(;/.)] [OR] [3. Permanently disfigured someone(;/.)] [OR] [4. Cut or disabled someone’s tongue(;/.)] [OR] [5. Slit someone’s (nose[,]/ear[,]/ [or] lip) (;/.)] [OR] [6. Put out someone’s eye or injured someone’s eye in a way that so significantly reduced (his/her) ability to see that the eye was useless for the purpose of ordinary sight.]
Someone acts maliciously when he or she intentionally does a wrongful act or when he or she acts with the unlawful intent to annoy or injure someone else.
[A disfiguring injury may be permanent even if it can be repaired by medical procedures.]800. Aggravated Mayhem
The defendant is charged [in Count ______] with aggravated mayhem.
To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the People must prove that:
1. The defendant unlawfully and maliciously (disabled or disfigured someone permanently/ [or] deprived someone else of a limb, organ, or part of (his/her) body);
2. When the defendant acted, (he/she) intended to (permanently disable or disfigure the other person/ [or] deprive the other person of a limb, organ, or part of (his/ her) body);
AND
3. Under the circumstances, the defendant’s act showed extreme indifference to the physical or psychological well-being of the other person.
Someone acts maliciously when he or she intentionally does a wrongful act or when he or she acts with the unlawful intent to annoy or injure someone else.
[A disfiguring injury may be permanent even if it can be repaired by medical procedures.] [The People do not have to prove that the defendant intended to kill.]