The prosecution of actor Alec Baldwin in connection with the fatal shooting on a film set has ended when the special prosecutor withdrew her appeal of the judge’s decision to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge during his trial. Kari T. Morrissey said she was abandoning the case due to multiple barriers that compromised its ability to prosecute fully.
During his trial, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer found that the state had withheld evidence from the defense, which led to the dismissal of the case without the potential for it to be retried. The prosecution’s efforts were hindered by prosecutorial misconduct, including eliciting false testimony from a crime scene technician.
Baldwin’s lawyers have long criticized Morrissey’s handling of the case, accusing her of “bad faith” motives for reviving the prosecution against him. Baldwin has consistently denied responsibility for the shooting, claiming he could not have foreseen that a gun handed to him on set would contain live ammunition.
The decision marks the final blow to the case, which was upended on its third day after Morrissey argued that the withheld evidence was not material to Baldwin’s defense. The armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who loaded the gun that day, is serving an 18-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter and has appealed her conviction.
As the case ends, Baldwin remains vulnerable to lawsuits brought against him following the tragedy in 2021.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/movies/rust-appeal-alec-baldwin-trial.html