Alec Baldwin's dismissal is an example of an "epidemic"

Violations of Brady are quite common and often lead to innocent people going to jail.

Alec Baldwin in the courtroom, from a story from Rolling Stone

Alec Baldwin had his criminal charges dismissed last week, and the news set off a firestorm.

Because Baldwin is a polarizing figure, the important issue was lost, in my opinion.

Emily Miller, who writes a Substack, referred to his dismissal as a “technicality.”

I took umbrage with the term “technicality”, and she explained further on Facebook.

Technically, pardon the pun, Emily is right, but calling this a technicality obscures the seriousness of what prosecutors did in this and many other cases.

Prosecutors withheld exculpatory- or evidence which would help the defense- from the defense. That’s cheating. When it’s done in sports, that’s serious enough but when it happens in a criminal case- with Alec Baldwin’s freedom at stake- that’s as serious as a heart attack.

So, what happened? Here’s more on the trial.

“The late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” Marlowe Sommer said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith it certainly comes so near to bad faith to show signs of scorching.”

The case-ending evidence, revealed during testimony Thursday, 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 they “buried” it and filed a motion to dismiss the case.

The judge's decision ends the criminal culpability of the 66-year-old Baldwin after a nearly three-year saga that began when a revolver he was pointing at Hutchins during a rehearsal went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

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