A Clayton County prosecutor has apologized for using artificial intelligence to cite several nonexistent cases that prompted tough questioning at Georgia’s Supreme Court.
In her court-ordered explanation submitted Friday, Assistant District Attorney Deborah Leslie admitted she used AI to help argue against a new trial for a woman convicted of chasing down and killing a motorist after an alleged hit-and-run.
Leslie was called out by Chief Justice Nels Peterson during oral arguments before Georgia’s highest court March 18. She was given 10 days to explain why she’d filed a proposed order filled with phony case law and nonexistent quotations.
In a signed affidavit, Leslie acknowledged using AI to conduct what she called “expanded legal research.”
Credit: Supreme Court of Georgia
Credit: Supreme Court of Georgia
Those AI-generated case references appeared to be legitimate citations, she said, but they “were not independently verified before inclusion.”
“These errors were not intentional,” Leslie said. “The State takes full responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of its filings and regrets any confusion caused to the Court.”
The inclusion of bogus AI-generated case citations has been a major issue in the legal world for years, and attorneys are routinely disciplined for referencing nonexistent cases in legal briefs.
In his first State of the Judiciary address last month, Peterson said AI “poses both risk and opportunity for the judicial system.”
Among the downsides of AI is the fact that lawyers increasingly submit erroneous or nonexistent case citations, he said. But Peterson said the harm posed by attorneys who do so is “relatively minimal so long as judges read the cases that are cited to them.”
That apparently didn’t happen during Hannah Payne’s request for a new trial. In September, Clayton County Superior Court Judge Jewel Scott denied Payne’s motion when she signed off on the proposed order prepared by Leslie, court records show.
During oral arguments two weeks ago, Peterson had questions about some of the cases referenced in that order.
“There are at least five citations to cases that don’t exist,” Peterson said, grilling Leslie after both sides finished their arguments. “And there’s at least five more citations to cases that do not support the proposition for which they’re cited, including three quotations that don’t exist.”
Leslie said she is withdrawing nine case citations “that were inaccurate or unsupported” and asked that the Supreme Court disregard them. She acknowledged the inclusion of any inaccurate citation “is a serious matter” and said she never meant to misstate the law or mislead the court.
“I again express my sincere regret for having submitted materials that contained erroneous and fictitious case citations,” Leslie wrote. “I am firmly committed to ensuring that nothing of this nature occurs again in any future filing.”
Leslie said she has practiced law for 22 years without any prior disciplinary action and said this incident is “entirely inconsistent” with her professional history and the standards she has sought to uphold.
She also said she has implemented new safeguards to prevent this from happening again, including independently verifying every case citation and quote and having colleagues read behind her whenever possible.
Clayton County District Attorney Tasha Mosley did not respond Sunday to questions about her office’s AI policy or whether Leslie will remain on the case. She previously said she would refrain from commenting on the issue until her office completed an investigation into the incident.
Payne was arrested in May 2019 after authorities said she chased down and fatally shot 62-year-old Kenneth Herring after seeing him hit another vehicle in traffic.
Payne, who was 21 at the time, called 911 before chasing Herring for about a mile and shooting him near the intersection of Riverdale Road and Forest Parkway.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
At trial, prosecutors said Payne ignored the instructions of 911 dispatchers who told her to stay at the scene of the initial hit-and-run and not to confront the other driver. Instead, officials said Payne weaved through traffic until she caught up with Herring, blocked his vehicle and ordered him out of the car.
When Herring refused, authorities said Payne repeatedly punched him and then pulled out her gun and shot him.
She was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to life with parole, plus an additional 13 years.
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