New Mexico prosecutors plan to recharge Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter over a fatal on-set shooting in October 2021.
The prosecutors dismissed charges against the Emmy award-winning actor in April, just two weeks before his trial was due to start.
But “additional facts” merit bringing the case again before a grand jury next month, they said.
If the charges were dismissed wouldn’t that be considered double jeopardy charging him again for the same crime?
Charges can be dismissed with prejudice or without prejudice. If they are dismissed with prejudice, you can’t be charged again. If they are dismissed without, then you can.
Depends on when, by whom, and why they are dismissed.
I’d say dismissals with or without prejudice goes to law of the case doctrine and issue preclusion. Those doctrines are about whether the prosecution is legally able to relitigate something that was already decided under the law, in the interests of judicial economy and finality of judgments.
Freedom from double jeopardy on the other hand is a constitutional right and attaches specifically when a jury is empaneled and sworn in. Before that, the defendant is not “in jeopardy.” If a case never made it to a jury, a subsequent prosecution is not double jeopardy.
If a case is dismissed after a jury is sworn, it is the consequence of jeopardy that makes the dismissal one with prejudice.
Dismissed charges is not the same as going through trial and being acquitted
I would think they would have to be dismissed by a judge or by action of a jury for double jeopardy rather than prosecutors dropping them. But I’m sure Baldwin has a couple lawyers chomping at the bit to make the argument.
Fair point, yeah I would think his legal team will be trying anything for another dismissal.
*champing at the bit
You seem certain of this and this quote is apparently copy pasted from a reliable source, however it still makes more sense to me to say chomping at the bit. If you take a bite of a sandwich, do you “chomp” it, or “champ” it?
I am not a horse. But, if I were to bite into a sandwich, I would chomp it between my teeth. A bit from a horse’s bridle rests behind a horse’s teeth. (Their teeth don’t go as far back as ours do)
When champion race-horses “champs” get excited and pull on and grind at the bit - “champing at the bit” - they’re not actually biting down on it really. The facts that “champing” and “chomping” both sound similar and have to do with something in the mouth is just a weird coincidence. It’s a play on words.
They are right on the correct historical usage of the phrase afaik (I’ve heard old timers say it that way), but I prefer it my way. Much like how I will not pronounce croissant like the Fr*nch
then you may not have one of my freshly baked, delisiously buttery cwasawh
Isn’t double jeopardy being tried for the same crime twice? It says the charges were dropped two weeks before going to trial, so he hasn’t been tried for it yet.
Not if new information is brought forward