Prosecutors Downgrade Charge In Alec Baldwin "Rust" Case, Remove Firearm Enhancement

That it was the correct choice because of ex post facto, but it doesn't exonerate Baldwin's killing of Hutchins.

Alec Baldwin still faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter for shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding the film’s director, Joel Souza, but an enhancement on one of the charges has been dropped.

The firearm enhancement carried a minimum five year prison sentence and concerned the possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, previously described as “brandishing” a firearm during a “drug transaction, aggravated battery, or serious violent offense.” The legislature broadened the the scope of the statute, removed “brandishing, and added a five-year penalty for discharging a firearm in the commission of a non-capital felony.

Baldwin’s lawyers argued that it was inapplicable as the statute was made law after the shooting. This is correct, given that we don’t practice ex post facto and charge people under laws that don’t exist at the time the corresponding crime was committed, but it’s not the win that Baldwin’s lawyers are spinning it as — although it does dramatically reduce the amount of jail time if he’s convicted. I do find it interesting that he’s pleased to be excluded from the consequence of a law that he would champion as an anti-gun activist, though.

The left talks a lot about privilege and the best evidence of it is the Baldwin treatment afforded him by the media and justice system. That Baldwin would be in jail were he anyone else isn’t speculation, it’s mere statement of fact. An elderly Arizona rancher who lives on the border is in jail on $1 million dollar bond for using lethal force to defend himself against a repeat illegal entrant that reportedly worked with cartels.

Imagine if George Alan Kelly was a Baldwin.