UCMJ Article 128a: Maiming

Maiming is an injury that seriously disfigures, destroys or disables a member or organ, or seriously diminishes physical vigor, inflicted with an intent to cause some injury. The accused does not have to intend the maiming result itself. The maximum is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and 20 years of confinement, and maiming of a child can be tried at any time.

Three kinds of injury in § 928a

10 U.S.C. § 928a reaches a person who, “with intent to injure, disfigure, or disable, inflicts upon the person of another an injury” that does one of three things: seriously disfigures the person “by any mutilation thereof”; destroys or disables any member or organ of the body; or seriously diminishes physical vigor by the injury of any member or organ.

Before January 1, 2019, maiming was Article 124. The Military Justice Act of 2016 renumbered it as Article 128a (Pub. L. 114-328, § 5401(13)); Article 124 now covers frauds against the United States.

Elements of maiming

The Manual for Courts-Martial (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 78.b:

The accused inflicted a certain injury upon a certain person.
The injury seriously disfigured the person’s body, destroyed or disabled an organ or member, or seriously diminished the person’s physical vigor by the injury to an organ or member.
The accused inflicted the injury with an intent to cause some injury to a person.

The intent rule

The Manual states the rule directly: “Maiming requires a specific intent to injure generally but not a specific intent to maim. Thus, one commits the offense who intends only a slight injury, if in fact there is infliction of an injury of the type specified in this article” (¶ 78.c(3)). An injury of the kind the article describes “may support an inference of the intent to injure, disfigure, or disable.”

That rule cuts in two directions. For example, a punch meant to cause a minor injury that knocks out a tooth can be maiming. But an injury inflicted with no intent to injure anyone, such as a true accident, is outside the article.

How serious and how permanent

The Manual’s examples of maiming are putting out an eye, cutting off a hand, foot, or finger, knocking out a tooth, injuring an internal organ so as to seriously diminish physical vigor, cutting off an ear, and scarring a face with acid (¶ 78.c(1)). The paragraph then sets three limits:

A disfigurement need not mutilate an entire member, but “must be such as to impair perceptibly and materially the victim’s comeliness.”
The injury “must be a serious injury of a substantially permanent nature.”
The offense is still complete “even though there is a possibility that the victim may eventually recover the use of the member or organ, or that the disfigurement may be cured by surgery.”

So the government must show a substantially permanent injury, but a prospect of later surgery or recovery does not defeat the charge. The specific means of inflicting the injury need not be proved, although evidence of the means may bear on intent (¶ 78.c(2)).

Maximum punishment: 20 years

Under ¶ 78.d, the maximum is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 20 years.

That is four times the 5-year maximum for an aggravated assault inflicting grievous bodily harm under Article 128 in an ordinary case. Grievous bodily harm can include protracted disfigurement or loss of function; maiming adds the requirement that the injury be of a substantially permanent nature and of the kinds the statute names.

No time limit for maiming of a child

Under 10 U.S.C. § 843(a), a person charged with “maiming of a child” may be tried and punished at any time without limitation. Other maiming charges fall under the general five-year limit in § 843(b)(1).

Sources

10 U.S.C. § 928a, Article 128a, Maiming (Cornell LII)
10 U.S.C. § 843, Article 43, Statute of limitations (Cornell LII)
Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 78

General information about military law, not legal advice for any individual case.