(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Comedy Central)
Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
The best way I can ensure justice is served in this case is to step down so that the prosecution can focus on the evidence and the facts, which clearly show a complete disregard for basic safety protocols led to the death of Halyna Hutchins. I will not allow questions about my serving as a legislator and prosecutor to cloud the real issue at hand.
— Special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, in a statement announcing her decision to step down from her role handling the criminal case against actor Alec Baldwin in the “Rust” movie set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Reeb also a serves as a representative in the New Mexico state legislature, and Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel, had previously filed a motion to remove her from the case, arguing that Reeb should be disqualified Reeb under the New Mexico constitution’s separation-of-powers provision. Prior to this, the charges against Baldwin were downgraded after Nikas argued that prosecutors had “committed an unconstitutional and elementary legal error” by charging the actor under a statute that didn’t exist at the time of the shooting.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
