Various media outlets including ABC News are reporting that prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against Alec Baldwin in connection with the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, a movie they were working on in New Mexico. While rehearsing a shooting scene, Baldwin shot Hutchins with a prop gun he had moments earlier been advised was “cold” – i.e., not loaded with live ammunition.
This is a just result. As I’ve argued in a couple of columns at Fox News (here and here), the accidental killing should never have been charged criminally. It is not the purpose of the criminal justice system to deal with tragic accidents. That is what the civil justice system is for, and in that system the 65-year-old actor has already paid at least one (undisclosed but no doubt appropriately large) settlement.
The criminal case, in which Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, was already crumbling in February. In an embarrassing setback, prosecutors were forced to drop a sentencing enhancement provision they had added to the case to try to jack up Baldwin’s potential prison sentence to more than five years. The inflated charge turned out to be a constitutional ex post facto violation because it was not enacted until after the tragic October 2021 shooting.
Like Baldwin, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter. She was principally responsible for ensuring that the prop guns were safe. Although the enhanced sentencing provision was dropped in her case, too (as it had to be), New Mexico prosecutors have not dismissed the involuntary-manslaughter charge at this point. She has said she intends to plead not guilty.
One defendant in the case, David Halls, pled guilty to negligent use of a dangerous weapon in a plea deal. It was Halls who handed the prop gun to Baldwin and advised him it was “cold.” He was sentenced last month to six months of unsupervised probation.