{"id":3265,"date":"2026-09-11T21:08:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=3265"},"modified":"2026-09-11T21:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:08:36","slug":"us-lawyer-cites-fake-witnesses-in-murder-case-blames-chatgpt-technology-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=3265","title":{"rendered":"US lawyer cites fake witnesses in murder case, blames ChatGPT | Technology News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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State supreme court fined the attorney and held him in contempt for not verifying facts in a court filing.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Published On 11 Sep 2026<\/span>11 Sep 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A defense lawyer appealing his client\u2019s murder conviction submitted a brief containing made-up police testimony and witnesses fabricated by OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, New Mexico\u2019s highest court has said.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Supreme Court in the United States on Wednesday fined the lawyer, Stephen Aarons, and held him in contempt for failing to verify the accuracy of the court filing, which Aarons said he prepared with help from the artificial intelligence (AI) programme.<\/p>\n

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The filing \u201ccontained false testimony from wholly fabricated witnesses\u201d, the court said.<\/p>\n

The panel also said Aarons had \u201cdemonstrated a lack of remorse and a lack of concern for his client\u201d. The justices fined Aarons $5,000 and said they will refer him to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation.<\/p>\n

Aarons, in a statement to the Reuters news agency, said he had used ChatGPT to summarise the trial proceedings when he agreed to take up the defendant\u2019s appeal last year, and did not understand the degree to which AI could \u201challucinate\u201d facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am remorseful but hopeful that the disciplinary board takes into account it was an honest mistake,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a lesson learned for all professionals who rely upon this powerful but sometimes unstable technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s sanction is the latest in a growing number of cases in which state and federal judges have\u00a0disciplined\u00a0lawyers for submitting court documents generated by AI tools without adequately vetting them.\u00a0Some judges have also\u00a0faced scrutiny\u00a0over the use of AI.<\/p>\n

Dozens of lawyers have been sanctioned for filing briefs where AI made up case citations or misquoted the law. Aarons\u2019s filing appears to have gone further, containing fabricated witness testimony in a criminal appeal.<\/p>\n

Aarons, a private attorney based in Santa Fe, was handling the appeal of Oscar Renee Sandoval, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of the mother of his children before he was convicted and sentenced last year to life in prison.<\/p>\n

The appeal is still pending and was assigned on September 2 to Kim Chavez Cook, a New Mexico public defender. Cook declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The district attorney\u2019s office for Dona Ana County also declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The state supreme court last month ordered Aarons to explain how the fabricated material, which it said appeared to include \u201cfictional statements that the shooter was wearing dark pants and a white shirt\u201d, was included in his primary brief in the appeal.<\/p>\n

Aarons told the court at an August 21 hearing that he fed a computer-generated transcript and other case materials to ChatGPT, presuming it would generate \u201ca bulletproof summary\u201d.<\/p>\n

The justices sounded incredulous that Aarons was not fully aware of how AI can make mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCounsel, do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what\u2019s going on in the world?\u201d Justice C. Shannon Bacon said at the hearing. \u201cBecause the problem with lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an above-the-fold story every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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State supreme court fined the attorney and held him in contempt for not verifying facts in a court filing. Published On 11 Sep 202611 Sep 2026 A defense lawyer appealing his client\u2019s murder conviction submitted a brief containing made-up police testimony and witnesses fabricated by OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, New Mexico\u2019s highest court has said. The New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t