New Delhi, India

On July 12, actor Alec Baldwin walked out of the court as a free man after the dismissal of involuntary manslaughter charges over the death of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust in 2021. 

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Ten days after the Rust case dropped, two jurors of the trial have spoken up about the case and shared their stand on the high-profile case. 

What jurors have to say about Baldwin's case?

In an interview with The New York Times, jurors No. 7 and 9 talked about Badlwin's trial, saying that it was "clearly an accident" and that the 66-year-old actor shouldn't even "be on trial."

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The 12 judges bunch dismissed Baldwin's case with a ruling that prosecutors and police withheld key evidence on the source over the live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021 on the set of the movie Rust.

“As the week went by, it just didn’t, it didn’t seem like a very strong case,” Haag, juror No. 7, who works in the advertising and marketing field, told The New York Times.

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She continued, “It was clearly an accident, and the idea that there’s anything purposeful, or the idea that there was this grave carelessness that caused this, didn’t seem realistic to me.”

Juror No. 9, Gabriele Picayo was also on Baldwin's side. 

Picayo, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said that she felt Baldwin should not be on trial.

Mentioning Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's conviction of involuntary manslaughter, she said, “I’m still here, I’m still open to hearing and obviously trying to stay unbiased,” she said, “but I was starting to move towards the direction of thinking that this was very silly and he should not be on trial.” 

Further adding, she said that Baldwin should have been able to trust "the people, you know, on set to do their job."

Braking his silence after the case was dismissed, Baldwin shared his first statement. Taking to his Instagram handle, the actor thanked all the support he got during the tough time. 

Sharing a picture of him from the trial, the actor wrote, ''There are too many people who have supported me to thank just now. To all of you, you will never know how much I appreciate your kindness toward my family.''

(With inputs from agencies)