Attorneys for Alec Baldwin have urged a judge to block prosecutors from seeking a five-year prison sentence for the actor, arguing that the gun enhancement law used to justify the punishment was not in force at the time of the fatal shooting on the set of Rust.
In court documents filed on Friday, Baldwin’s legal team contended that applying the law retroactively would violate the US constitution. 'The prosecutors committed a basic legal error,' wrote lead lawyer Luke Nikas.
If the judge, Mary Marlowe Sommer, rules in favour of Baldwin, the maximum sentence he would face upon conviction for involuntary manslaughter would be reduced from five years to 18 months.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on 21 October 2021 after a gun Baldwin was rehearsing with discharged. Baldwin has said he was told the weapon was safe and that the shooting was a 'tragic accident'.
Prosecutors filed charges against Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed in January, alleging negligence. However, the sentencing enhancement they invoked, which mandates five years for a firearm discharge during a felony, did not take effect until May 2022, seven months after Hutchins’s death.
Baldwin’s team has also moved to disqualify special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, and Hutchins’s family has filed a separate civil lawsuit. Baldwin and Gutierrez Reed are due in court on 24 February.
