Hannah Renee Payne v. The State

What the court wrote

Verbatim from the court's document (public domain). Ellipses mark omitted text; nothing is paraphrased.

1. On March 20, 2026, after oral argument in this case, this Court entered an order directing counsel for the State to file a supplemental brief explaining, among other things, how the September 12, 2025 order of the trial court denying Payne’s motion for new trial (which reflects that ADA Leslie prepared that order) came to include nine case citations that either do not exist or do not stand for the propositions for which they are cited. 1 On March 27, 2026, Clayton County ADA Leslie filed a supplemental brief and affidavit in which she acknowledged using artificial intelligence software to draft the State’s briefs in opposition to Payne’s motion for new trial and the trial court’s proposed order denying the motion for new trial. ADA Leslie acknowledged that the case citations generated by artificial intelligence software were not independently verified before inclusion in the State’s briefs or proposed order and represented that she had implemented safeguards to ensure that fictitious or misattributed authorities would not appear in any future filings.