New Mexico’s special prosecutor withdrew the state’s appeal on December 23, 2024, ending the criminal case against Alec Baldwin over the fatal 2021 shooting on the Rust set. The appeal had challenged a judge’s July 2024 dismissal of Baldwin’s involuntary-manslaughter charge. This resolved the criminal prosecution, not separate civil lawsuits connected to the shooting.
What happened to the appeal?
Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey withdrew New Mexico’s notice of appeal in State of New Mexico v. Alexander Rae Baldwin on December 23, 2024. The state had filed the notice on November 21, seeking to challenge the trial court’s dismissal of the criminal charges, including involuntary manslaughter. The First Judicial District Attorney’s office confirmed the withdrawal in its December 23 statement.
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The withdrawal ended the state’s effort to revive the criminal case through that appeal. It was not a trial verdict, nor a new ruling on whether Baldwin was guilty or innocent. Baldwin’s attorneys called the decision “the final vindication” of their position, but that was their characterization, not a court finding on the merits, as the Associated Press reported.
Why had the judge dismissed the case?
A New Mexico judge dismissed Baldwin’s involuntary-manslaughter case during trial in July 2024 after a dispute over ammunition evidence and its disclosure to the defense. The case arose from the October 21, 2021, shooting on the Rust set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, according to the Associated Press.
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The dispute centered on ammunition delivered to the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office in March 2024 by someone who said it might be related to Hutchins’s death. Prosecutors said they considered the ammunition unrelated and unimportant. Baldwin’s attorneys argued that investigators put it in a separate case file and failed to disclose it. The prosecutor’s office maintained that the evidence was not material and had been known to the defense before trial. These were competing accounts; the controversy prompted the dismissal, but the claims about the evidence should not be treated as uncontested facts.
Why did prosecutors stop pursuing the appeal?
The district attorney’s office said the decision not to pursue the appeal followed consultation with Hutchins’s family. Morrissey said the state regretted that Baldwin would not be held accountable for his role in Hutchins’s death and expressed hope that outstanding lawsuits would air the facts. The Associated Press also reported that New Mexico’s attorney general would carry forward criminal appeals under state law and did not intend to pursue this appeal exhaustively.
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Are all the Rust cases over?
No. The appeal withdrawal concluded Baldwin’s criminal case, but civil proceedings are separate. In October 2025, the Associated Press reported that Baldwin’s malicious-prosecution lawsuit had been reinstated and moved to federal court, and that civil claims by Hutchins’s family were continuing. The criminal appeal’s outcome did not resolve those claims.
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