How have the courts reviewed jury instructions in a sexual assault case?

In reviewing jury instructions, the court must consider whether the instructions as a whole were misleading or inadequate to guide the jury's determination. Stoker v. United States, 587 F.2d 438, 440 (9th Cir.1978). As previously discussed, the only offense in which the judge instructed the jury was forcible assault. Therefore, since he also read the indictment to the jury, the instructions as a whole were both conflicting and misleading in that the instructions erroneously described the offense charged in the indictment and failed to guide the jury on the offense which was charged. "[A] conviction should not rest on ambiguous and equivocal instructions to the jury on a basic issue." United States v. Bagby, 451 F.2d 920, 927 (9th Cir.1971), citing Bollenbach v. United States, 326 U.S. 607, 613, 66 S.Ct. 402, 405, 90 L.Ed. 350 (1946).