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Court asked to reconsider Alec Baldwin charge dismissal

The involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice.

The involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice. Photo: AAP

A prosecutor has asked a judge to reconsider the decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer, according to court documents.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said on Wednesday (local time) there were insufficient facts to support the ruling in the Nevada district court and no violation of Baldwin’s due process rights.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin in July – halfway through a trial – based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defence in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust.

The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can’t be revived once appeals of the decision are exhausted.

“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Sommer said at the time.

“The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy.”

After the case was dismissed, Baldwin threatened to sue Morrissey and Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza over the botched prosecution.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on Rust, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. The actor has said he pulled back the hammer – but not the trigger – and the revolver fired.

The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff’s office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins’ killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s lawyers alleged that they “buried” it and filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Movie armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is serving an 18-month sentence on a conviction for involuntary manslaughter. She was accused of flouting standard safety protocols and missing multiple opportunities to detect forbidden live ammunition on set.

Assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon.

It has never been officially determined who brought the live rounds that killed Hutchins to the set, though prosecutors allege that Gutierrez-Reed was responsible.

-with AAP

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