Overreaching

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

Lots of folks hate actors. They’re bigger than life, which means they’re bigger than us. No one likes to feel small.

That may in part be why a New Mexico prosecutor has taken aim at Alec Baldwin, who in October 2021 took aim of his own with what he’d been assured was an unloaded prop gun that when fired most assuredly was loaded and killed the film’s cinematographer.

Unlikeable as Baldwin sometimes seems, is it fair to characterize a tragic accident as a criminal act for which he should spend years in prison?

Under the law in New Mexico, where he would be tried, it is not fair.

To be convicted, the law there requires that Baldwin knew — despite being told by the people on set responsible for gun safety that it was empty of anything that could be fired through it and therefore, except when used as a club, safe — that the gun still might be loaded and fired it anyway.

Unless Baldwin is even more unlikeable than some people say, that just isn’t likely. Certainly not beyond a reasonable doubt likely.