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The winding prosecution of Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting on the \u201cRust\u201d film set is set to arrive at a trial this week in New Mexico, where a jury will be asked to decide whether his role in the death of the movie\u2019s cinematographer amounts to involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n
The case revolves around the events of Oct. 21, 2021, when the gun Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing with discharged a live bullet that killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounded the movie\u2019s director. The weapon was supposed to have been loaded with inert rounds that could not fire.<\/p>\n
The initial announcement that prosecutors were bringing a criminal case<\/a> against Mr. Baldwin was met with shock from Hollywood<\/a>, where many consider on-set gun safety the responsibility of a production\u2019s weapons experts and safety coordinators, not its actors. (The movie\u2019s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has already been convicted of involuntary manslaughter<\/a> and sentenced to 18 months<\/a> in prison.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The case has put those Hollywood norms to the test and the conduct of Mr. Baldwin, a fixture of the television and movie industry for decades, under a microscope. The proceedings are expected to be highly contested by his lawyers, who have argued for months<\/a> that the prosecution is a misguided bid to secure a high-profile conviction of a celebrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The trial is expected to last about two weeks at the Santa Fe County District Courthouse, where the proceedings will be livestreamed. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The special prosecutors in charge of the case, led by Kari T. Morrissey, have argued that Mr. Baldwin, 66, flouted industry rules around firearm use, citing industry guidelines that urge actors not to place their finger on the trigger of a gun before they are ready to shoot and to never point a weapon at anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the rules for actors handling firearms on movie sets and Mr. Baldwin managed to disregard every single one of them,\u201d Ms. Morrissey wrote in a court filing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although those industry guidelines do not require that an actor independently check the gun on set, prosecutors have argued that Mr. Baldwin had a responsibility to do so under the law.<\/p>\n Prosecutors want the judge to allow them to show jurors video footage that they say furthers their argument that Mr. Baldwin was careless with safety on set, including video of him using his gun \u201cas a pointer\u201d outside of acting sequences and firing his weapon after \u201ccut\u201d was called. Another video they want shown at trial shows what they describe as Mr. Baldwin rushing the armorer by urging her to reload his revolver quickly<\/a>.<\/p>\n They are also expected to argue at trial that just before the gun discharged a live bullet, Mr. Baldwin had failed to follow instructions from the director, Joel Souza, who has said that the particular take called for the actor to slowly pull the gun from its holster, not point the gun outward.<\/p>\n \u201cHe ignored direction from Mr. Souza and without warning, acted on his own volition,\u201d Ms. Morrissey wrote in court papers.<\/p>\n Mr. Baldwin, who was both a lead actor and producer on \u201cRust,\u201d has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge and has long denied responsibility for Ms. Hutchins\u2019s death. Weeks after the shooting, he said in a television interview<\/a> that Ms. Hutchins had been directing him where to point the gun and that the gun had discharged suddenly, without him pulling the trigger.<\/a><\/p>\nWhy do prosecutors say he\u2019s guilty?<\/h2>\n
What is the defense\u2019s argument?<\/h2>\n