Cold Gun!

The Blame Game

On October 21st, an acclaimed cinematographer, 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, was fatally shot by Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust. Just prior to the shooting, the film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, grabbed the gun from among three that the film’s armorer had set up on a nearby tray. After yelling “Cold Gun!”, film jargon which is supposed to mean that the gun did not contain any live ammunition, Mr. Halls handed the gun to Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing a scene which involved “cross drawing” and pointing the gun towards the camera lens when it suddenly went off.

In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of Who’s to Blame for this tragic and admittedly accidental death? Who, if anyone, is legally responsible for what happened to Ms. Hutchins? And to help us answer these questions, we turn to attorney Danny Cevallos. In addition to having his own criminal defense practice, Mr. Cevallos is of counsel to the law firm of Edelman & Edelman in New York where his focus is on cases involving wrongful conviction; and serves as a legal analyst and online columnist for MSNBC and NBC News.

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