State v. Henley

OPINION

SERNA, Justice.

{1} In our criminal justice system, the right to trial by jury is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 12 of the New Mexico Constitution. “[I]t is the duty of juries in criminal cases to take the law from the court, and apply that law to the facts as they find them to be from the evidence.” Sparf v. United States, 156 U.S. 51, 102, 15 S.Ct. 273, 39 L.Ed. 343 (1895). In order for the jury to perform this duty, the court must instruct the jury on the law contained in our criminal statutes when the evidence presented at…