Prosecutors withdraw appeal of dismissed Rust shooting case against Alec Baldwin

New Mexico prosecutors will not pursue an appeal of a court’s decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting on a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey withdrew the appeal of a July decision at trial to dismiss the charge against Baldwin in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021.

The decision to drop the appeal solidifies the decision by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer halfway through trial to dismiss the case on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defence.

Baldwin’s trial was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County 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 say investigators “buried” the evidence in a separate case file and filed a successful motion to dismiss.

The district attorney’s office said the New Mexico attorney general would have carried forward the appeal but “did not intend to exhaustively pursue the appeal on behalf of the prosecution”.

“As a result, the State’s efforts to continue to litigate the case in a fair and comprehensive manner have been met with multiple barriers that have compromised its ability to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement from local prosecutors stated.