In Santa Fe, a defense attorney's misplaced trust in an artificial intelligence tool has placed both his career and his client's freedom in jeopardy. Stephen Aarons submitted a murder appeal brief containing fabricated witnesses and invented police testimony generated by ChatGPT — details he never verified against the actual record. The New Mexico Supreme Court, confronting what may be a new threshold in AI-assisted legal error, sanctioned Aarons and referred him for disciplinary review, while his client, Oscar Renee Sandoval, continues to serve a life sentence with his appeal now in other han
US lawyer sanctioned for submitting ChatGPT-fabricated witnesses in murder appeal
Oscar Renee Sandoval was convicted and sentenced to life in prison; the integrity of his murder appeal was compromised by fabricated evidence in his defense brief.