Baldwin pointed the gun at another human being. Baldwin cocked the hammer. Baldwin pulled the trigger. A human being is dead because of it.
He's free because somebody dropped some bullets off at the police station saying that they could be relevant to the origin of the bullet that killed Hutchens.
I have no idea why this is material evidence.
We all knew that there was a live round on set from the beginning. That's why there was a trial to begin with. The origin of the bullet wasn't material to Baldwin's guilt this morning. It's not relevant now.
Almost every legitimate case of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm has some kind of, "Oops. I didn't know the gun was loaded." attached to it. It never matters who loaded the gun or where the bullet came from. It's the operator of the firearm who is responsible for checking the gun, not pointing it at another person, not pressing the trigger unless ready to fire -- ya know, the basic shit.
Wherever the bullet came from, Hutchens is dead because Baldwin didn't do what any responsible operator of a firearm is responsible for.
If I were to go out to the range with a bunch of friends, and leave my Colt .45 Single Action Army unattended for a bit after checking that it was clear, picked up the gun after several minutes, and playfully pointed it at a friend and ended up killing him, I would go to prison. The question of my guilt wouldn't be predicated on who loaded the gun. I pulled the trigger. I didn't check the gun after it was out of my possession. I'm responsible.
I doubt that this will be appealed. Before anyone jumps on me, a mistrial with prejudice isn't the same thing as an acquittal by a unanimous jury. This ruling by the judge (who seemed like a really good judge to me during the pretrial hearings) can be appealed. It's always a long shot, and probably not gonna happen. But, this is a weak use of Brady.
I will say that the withholding of this evidence is worthy of a scolding. Still, I see nothing material about this, and I see no malice in this case. I'm reality, the reason why it was withheld was probably because it was so immaterial. There was evidence in the Rittenhouse case that was clearly tampered with maliciously by the state. That case was allowed to go to the jury after a proper dressing down of the prosecution by the judge.
The same should have happened here.
That's what having millions of dollars to spend on your defense team buys you.