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Lawyer Sanctioned After ChatGPT Generates Fake Testimony in Murder Appeal

September 11, 2026
oecd:2026-09-11-3333View source ↗

What happened

The New Mexico Supreme Court fined attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt after he submitted a murder appeal brief containing fabricated police testimony and witnesses generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT. The court cited his failure to verify the AI-generated content, raising concerns about AI misuse in legal proceedings.

Reported impact

Affected parties
Not publicly disclosed
Harm type
Not publicly disclosed
Scale
Not publicly disclosed
Financial impact
Not publicly disclosed
Regulatory action
Not publicly disclosed

Classification

Organization
Not publicly disclosed
AI system
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Industry
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Country
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Provider
Not publicly disclosed
Incident type
Not publicly disclosed

Relevant governance controls

Governance control mapping is not available for this record.

  • No controls mappedNot publicly disclosed

Control mapping is analytical. It does not state that any control would have prevented the incident.

Sources and evidence

OECD AI Incidents Monitor
Primary source
Lawyer Sanctioned After ChatGPT Generates Fake Testimony in Murder Appeal
2026-09-11