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.
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.