“[At common law,] an injury such as cutting off [a man’s] ear or nose did not constitute mayhem … , because it did not result in permanent disablement, but merely disfigured the victim. This was corrected by an early English statute. It seems that an assault was made upon Sir John Coventry on the street by persons who waylaid him and slit his nose in revenge for obnoxious words uttered by him in Parliament. This emphasized the weakness of the law of mayhem, and the so-called ‘Coventry Act’ was passed [in 1803].” Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 239–40 (3d ed. 1982).
coventry act
Coventry Act (k[schwa]v-[schwa]n-tree orkov-). An 1803 English statute establishing the death penalty for anyone who, with malice aforethought, did “cut out or disable the tongue, put out an eye, slit the nose, cut off a nose or lip, or cut off or disable any limb or member of any subject; with the intention in so doing to maim or disfigure him.”
