We can all agree that Alec Baldwin did not mean to kill cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, leaving her husband a widower and her then-9-year-old son motherless. He should not be, and was not, charged with murder. But, nor should this killing be brushed off as an accident, a tragedy of working with superstars in which a family’s only hope is to squeeze some money out in civil proceedings.
Baldwin should be charged, as he was, with involuntary manslaughter, which involves the “commission of a lawful act which might produce death … without due caution.”
To see why, it’s worth considering the three purposes of criminal punishment. One is retribution, the idea that society demands justice. If a mother watches her baby get murdered and the perpetrator roams free of consequence, she might take matters into her own hands. To prevent devolving into anarchy, we punish criminals to vindicate the victims. Perhaps society does not demand Alec Baldwin be jailed, so we move on to the next purpose.
