The 'Rust' fatal shooting bears resemblance to another on-set tragedy: In 1993, Brandon Lee was accidentally shot with a prop gun while filming 'The Crow.' His co-star didn't face criminal charges.
Nancy Gertner, a trial lawyer, retired judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, told NPR that filing criminal charges, in the deaths of both Lee and Hutchinson, is often up to the acting prosecutor's discretion.
She called the decision to charge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter both"unusual" and"difficult to prove." "No one intended for this to happen," Gertner said."So these kinds of charges are reserved for only the most extreme kinds of negligence, the most gross negligence, the largest deviation from what ordinary standards would be." Gertner points to other members of the crew — including the film's armorer, who is also facing charges of involuntary manslaughter — and their handling and management of the gun before it came into Baldwin's possession."There are people along the continuum here who had direct responsibility for that gun and failed in that responsibility," she said."One way of thinking of that is, in one sense, Baldwin is the least culpable on that line." To prove Baldwin's culpability, Gertner said the prosecutors are theorizing that Baldwin held a greater responsibility in the death than originally thought. She also pointed to the roles that social media and"the unbelievable crush of publicity" might be playing in the prosecutors' decision. "In other words, was the Lee case going to be on every single night on television, and on Twitter and on every major outlet?" Gertner said."Does that put pressure on prosecutors in ways that it never has before? And that could be a difference." Robert Weisberg, a criminal law professor at Stanford University, echoed the same sentiment that an involuntary manslaughter charge is often up to the prosecutor's discretion, calling the incident involving Baldwin"very factually messy." "I don't think we know enough yet about the forensics of the shooting, at least compared to what was settled in the Brandon Lee case," he said."And some possible outcomes from further investigation or actual trial testimony, in the Baldwin case, might more clearly differentiate the cases."
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