4 Or. 324 | Or. | 1873
By the Court,
The indictment in this case charges Samuel Yowels with the crime of mayhem, alleged to have been committed as follows: “The said Samuel Yowels, on the 25th day of December, 1870, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, did purposely, maliciously, and feloniously, tear off the left ear of Joseph Taylor.”
The only question to be considered arises upon the sufficiency of the indictment to support the conviction had thereon in the Court below. It is contended, by counsel for appellant, that under §§ 69 and 70 of the Criminal Code, the crime charged to have been committed must be named in the indictment, if it have a name, or, if it have no general name, it must be indicated by a brief description, as given by law. Of the correctness of this position there can be no doubt. But it is further urged that there is no such crime known to the laws of Oregon as the crime of “mayhem.” Of this let us inquire.
The indictment herein is based upon § 527 of the Criminal Code, which provides that ‘ ‘ if any person shall purposely and maliciously, or in the commission or attempt to commit a felony, cut or tear out or disable the tongue, or put out or destroy the eye, or cut or slit or tear off an ear, cut or slit or mutilate the nose or lip, or cut off or disable the limb or member of another, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the . Penitentiary for not less- than one nor more than twenty years.” It may not be amiss to state that this section is based upon the'English statute of 22 and 23 Car. II, ch. 1, commonly known as the Coventry Act, the circumstances which led to the passage of which are recounted by Lord Macaulay (Hist. Eng., vol. i, 8vo. ed. p. 77).
It follows that the judgment of the Court below must be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.