We knew the criminal case against Alec Baldwin was going on this week and expected it to go into next week but this took us by shock:
Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria weep after a New Mexico Judge threw out all charges against him and dismissed the case WITH prejudice.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 12, 2024
This came after she determined that the prosecution withheld Brady material from the defense.
The case against Baldwin has been riddled… pic.twitter.com/1dq9Oa6Fl5
The cut off text reads:
The case against Baldwin has been riddled with issues from the start.
The full ruling is provided for in this video as well as more of the reaction:
BREAKING: Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the 'Rust' moving shooting case with prejudice against #AlecBaldwin. When Baldwin heard her ruling, he started to sob and later hugged his family. Baldwin was facing an involuntary manslaughter charge. pic.twitter.com/v9gfv2xd92
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) July 12, 2024
The short version is that under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), the prosecution is required to turn over to the defense any exculpatory evidence. Apparently, the judge believed that this didn’t happen and so this is a sanction on the prosecutors. In a civil suit, you might get a mistrial, with the possibility of a new trial, but under the Double Jeopardy Clause, he can’t be tried again. That’s why the judge said it was dismissed with prejudice. That is legal code for ‘this case is done and it can’t come back.’
Is the judge right in her factual findings? We don’t know, but one thing we want to highlight is that this doesn’t literally have anything to do with guilt or innocence. It’s literally punishing the government for their misbehavior.
Still, at the same time, if the government was withholding evidence that tended to show Baldwin was innocent, then that might suggest that there would be actual, reasonable doubt if Baldwin had a fair trial.
But this author has always had trouble swallowing any notion that Baldwin should be acquitted based on facts that were widely reported to be true. As a starting point, we don’t believe Baldwin intended to hurt anyone. The entire issue here whether he was insufficiently careful in handling that gun.
This author believes there is no serious dispute that 1) Baldwin pointed a gun at two human beings, and 2) that there was a live bullet in the gun. In some contexts, Baldwin reportedly indicated that he didn’t actually pull the trigger, and while we are skeptical, let’s assume he didn’t. Still, ordinarily you never point a gun at another human being, unless you are legally entitled to kill or threaten to kill that person, even if you are 100% certain it is unloaded. But we were willing to accept a First Amendment exception to that rule. After all, if you want to make a movie where a man shoots a gun at a camera, it’s almost impossible to do so without breaking that rule of gun safety that has been drilled into every responsible gun owner. But if he was going to break that rule on gun safety, we think Baldwin had a duty to be very sure that the gun was not loaded with live rounds. His lawyers have argued that it was someone else’s duty to make sure the gun wasn’t loaded and we just don’t agree with that. He should have checked it himself and checked it again, if he allowed the gun out of his possession. Maybe someone else had a duty to make sure the gun wasn’t loaded, too, but that doesn’t relieve Baldwin of that duty, in this author's mind.
It will probably be some cold comfort to the families harmed by this that we think Baldwin will never make that mistake again. Or at least we would hope he wouldn’t.
Alec Baldwin shot a woman dead and gets to walk away at the same time they’re trying to put Trump in prison for a hundred years because they don’t like how he does paperwork. https://t.co/qFVD0HAbvG
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 12, 2024
We don’t remember if any evidence was withheld in Trump’s trial, but, as we noted before, Trump wasn’t fully informed of the nature of the charges against him until the prosecution’s closing statement and that seems to be fundamentally unfair to him.
BREAKING: Alec Baldwin trial has collapsed.
— Emma Vardy (@EmmaVardyTV) July 12, 2024
Judge has dismissed it after new evidence emerged that had not previously been disclosed to the defence.
Alec Baldwin in tears, and hugging his legal team and wife. pic.twitter.com/Dk7hi7sPNU
I know a lot of people detest Alec Baldwin. But this is absolutely the right ending.
— Billy Binion (@billybinion) July 12, 2024
The shooting was awful. It was also clearly an accident & didn’t meet the threshold for involuntary manslaughter under NM law. No matter how much you dislike Baldwin, he didn’t deserve this. https://t.co/VBTRlWauqx
Except as we said …
In other words, this ruling wasn't based on Baldwin being innocent, or at least not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge made the right call.
— The Manson Cases (@TheMansonCases) July 12, 2024
Not a fan of his politics or mercurial temper, but it was insane he was charged at all. He was an actor on a movie set. No reason why he would've thought they gave him a gun with live rounds.
— #AmYisraelChai 🇮🇱 (@DocCrypt) July 12, 2024
Alec pulled the trigger. https://t.co/nc2LbSZ7cb
— Conservative News Feed (@C_N_F__on__X) July 12, 2024
Baldwin still faces civil litigation.
— Susan (@CriticSusan) July 12, 2024
It is true that even though the criminal case has failed, a civil case might still succeed. But we’re honestly not sure what is going on, on the civil side.
Merchan withheld entire charges…
— Alvin Bragg’s impending diabetes (@JCK302642380) July 12, 2024
Right?!?
(Merchan is the judge in Trump's Manhattan trial.)
Judge did the right thing. This will live in his memory forever. That’s got to be punishment enough. It was sadly an accident on his part.
— J. (@JLM000) July 12, 2024
We tend to look askance at ‘hasn’t he suffered enough?’ type arguments, but in this case, we have to hope his own mind will punish him appropriately because the criminal law is done with Mr. Baldwin.
He's still a murderer.
— Mr.TightJeans (@MrJightJeans) July 12, 2024
Baldwin is likely to face people calling him a murderer for the rest of his life.
I figured it was an uphill battle for the prosecution to begin with when it was the paid armorer who loaded the gun with a live round. But apparently the judge got mad bc the prosecution withheld evidence. The plot thickens! 😲 https://t.co/YR6CkyF4W9
— Blocked by Big Ed The Mucinex Snot🦠 (@oucrimsongirl) July 12, 2024
We also saw many people who were very angry about this ruling, most of whom said things we can't print here.
Seeing his reaction makes *me* tear up. An indescribable, suffocating weight being lifted off of you, all at once. https://t.co/35lXmluF9S
— Guy Hamilton-Smith (@G_Padraic) July 12, 2024
Whatever you think the outcome should have been, yes, we have no doubt Baldwin was very genuinely relieved.
Good to see. If Baldwin weren’t famous this would never have gone this far. https://t.co/6csWjecRvl
— John Roche (@j_rplacitas) July 12, 2024
Some believe that if he wasn’t as famous as an actor he would have been charged much sooner.
Baldwin may be an ass but the case has been questionable to begin with and no evidence should be held against you. Period. https://t.co/HAm6KYSVSo
— Joshua Andersen (@ProMotoFanTalk) July 12, 2024
Whether you agree or disagree with Joshua, you can see he is trying to put his feelings about Baldwin aside, and we hope we have done the same.
Finally, this person offers some perspective:
I don’t like Alec Baldwin the slimy privileged white misogynist but this is the right decision when evidence is withheld from the defence. Mine was but I found about 3 years later as it was surveillance material, surely I deserve compensation for that even though I was acquitted? https://t.co/UeWM8LCfmz
— Post-Punk Music 🏳️⚧️🇵🇸 (@Post_Punk) July 12, 2024
Well ... that took a turn. Naturally, we can’t weigh in on the truth of ‘Post Punk’s’ story. But it’s worth thinking about. Sometimes when the prosecutor withholds evidence, people go to prison who don't deserve it.
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