Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter case was dismissed on July 12, 2024.
Baldwin was first charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, but those charges were dropped to allow more investigation. He was charged again in January 2024. Baldwin insisted that he didn’t pull the trigger throughout the case. Tests had mixed results on if the gun could’ve fired without the trigger being pulled.
As per Entertainment Weekly, the case took a turn when the judge dismissed it due to a Brady violation. This means the prosecution did not share important evidence with Baldwin’s defense team. This is required by law. The judge said that the misconduct by the police and prosecutors was so serious that the case could not continue and it could not be refiled.
The key piece of evidence involved bullets given to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office by a retired police officer. The prosecution did not share this information with Baldwin’s lawyers. Baldwin’s lawyers revealed this hidden evidence through careful questioning during the trial. This led to the case dismissal.
Baldwin Says This Was An Accident
The incident took place on October 21, 2021, on the set of ‘Rust.’ A gun Baldwin was using went off during filming and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer responsible for the weapons on the ‘Rust’ set, was already convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. David Halls, the first assistant director, was charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon and received six months probation.
The Hutchins family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and other crew members. This was settled in October 2022. Baldwin also sued Gutierrez-Reed and other crew members for negligence.
The dismissal leaves many questions unanswered, and Baldwin is now free.
