Alec Baldwin's Rust Case Is Over, Prosecutor Drops Manslaughter Appeal
The prosecutor in Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' manslaughter case has dropped her appeal, ending the case that dogged the actor for three years.
What a nightmare to find yourself in. Poor guy.
Manslaughter charges on Baldwin never made sense to me. Who the fuck gives a loaded gun to an actor on set, and how the hell is he supposed to know.
Seriously. I see so many people in other threads bitching about how the rich never get held accountable and I don't disagree but that was NOT the issue here.
In movies they do take after take after take. They fire the gun, hand it off to an armorer, get it back, fire, repeat. I've watched it happen, a lot. And I get it, people think the actor should be opening and checking every round before firing every time, and yes that is conventional firearm wisdom that does not work in that scenario.
That's why you hire experts to ensure this process is done safely and the armorer did not do that, period. And it should be pointed out that this process is followed in movies and TV shows over and over again safely, this time it did not happen and that is squarely on the fault of the armorer.
The armorer was especially incompetent and lazy. Nic Cage walked off the set of the first film she was armorer for.
She got 18 months in prison for this stupid shit.
The people I've seen saying it's his fault say it's because he was involved in production as well as acting in the film. At the most though, that sounds like negligence, not full on manslaughter. There's something to be said for holding the owners accountable for any accident that injurs or kills a worker or customer, but Baldwin just isn't that level of in charge
As I recall, Baldwin wasn't charged simply because he pulled the trigger. He was also a producer and so was involved in hiring the armorer in the first place.
I don't have an opinion on how the case should have turned out, it's just not so silly to bring the charges as is commonly assumed.
The manslaughter case was about him a producer on the film who ignored repeated warnings about the armorer and her repeated safety violations. So in theory he would have faced the same charges if another actor had fired the gun.
