CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A murder case is heading back to a lower court after the Georgia Supreme Court sanctioned a prosecutor for citing fake cases while using AI to write a brief in the case.
Hannah Payne was previously convicted of murdering Kenneth Herring in May 2019 after she saw him leave the scene of a minor traffic accident, followed him and eventually shot and killed him.
In March, Payne’s appeal for a new trial took a strange turn as Clayton County Assistant District Attorney Deborah Leslie used artificial intelligence to write their motion to dismiss the appeal.
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Clayton County District Attorney Tasha Mosley investigated the issue and determined AI was used. Leslie was ordered to file an apology with the court and had to revise the brief to have the “phantom case” citations taken out.
Now, the state’s highest court is going further with their penalty to Leslie and their decisions on the case.
The supreme court vacated the denial for a new trial and was ordered back to a lower court for reconsideration.
The court wrote this was specifically because of the focus on the AI-generated citations leading to the court getting “sidetracked from our obligation of resolving the merits of Payne’s appeal.”
Justice Benjamin A. Land wrote that in addition to sending the appeal down to a lower court for reconsideration, Leslie was sanctioned and her privilege to practice was suspended.
As a result, Leslie will not be able to practice law in the Georgia Supreme Court for six months.
“As a condition of the reinstatement of such privilege, ADA Leslie must obtain and certify that she has completed an aggregate of 12 hours of continuing legal education beyond the hours regularly required to maintain active membership in the State Bar of Georgia, consisting of sessions on ethics, brief writing, and the proper use of artificial intelligence software in the legal system,” the court order says.
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