Charges Against Alec Baldwin Dropped
Report: Manslaughter charges against actor and producer Alec Baldwin have been dropped with prejudice by the judge. This means that the charges cannot be refiled, and Baldwin is Scot free.
The filming of the movie "Rust" was not what you would call a model of safety. The armorer was young and inexperienced. But she was the daughter of a buddy of firearms guru Jeff Cooper, so she grew up around guns and knew better. But if she had told Baldwin or the other bosses anything they didn't like, very likely she would never work in movies again.
Against all safety rules, live rounds were allowed on the set, so the crew could target practice at lunchtime. This was a disaster waiting to happen. During a rehearsal, the assistant director handed Baldwin a revolver said to be "cold" – that is, safe – but it held at least one live round. The assistant director did not personally check that the gun was safe before handing it to Baldwin, nor did Baldwin check it. Both of these men relied on the armorer, who was not present on the set. The Three Stooges could not have devised a worse plan.
Baldwin then took the gun, which he had not checked, pointed it at cinematographer Halina Hutchins, a wife and mother of a young boy, and fooled with (term chosen deliberately) the trigger and/or hammer. The gun discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding a man standing behind her with a single bullet.
The armorer didn't do her job, and was sentenced to 18 months for involuntary manslaughter. The assistant director didn't do his job, and was sentenced to home confinement for negligent handling of a firearm.
But it was Alec Baldwin who took a gun he had not checked, nor had anyone in his presence checked it, then pointed it at a human being, manipulated the trigger and/or hammer, and killed a woman and injured a man.
I would have found Baldwin guilty of second degree murder, depraved indifference to human life. The gun was a real gun, not a "prop gun" as the media often claimed. Everyone with an IQ above that of cabbage knows that guns are dangerous. Baldwin has been making movies with guns for decades. "The Hunt for Red October" came out in 1990, 34 years ago. If he didn't learn not to point guns at people in all that time, that's his problem, not ours.
I am indeed sorry that the prosecution failed to reveal evidence to the defense, evidence of live ammunition and tool marks on the trigger or hammer. That is a serious violation for which their law licenses should be at risk. But Baldwin did what he did regardless, and that's what killed a human being and injured another.