AI-Generated Victim Speaks in Court: Justice Meets Innovation
United States: A simulation of a dead man produced by artificial intelligence confronted his killer in an Arizona court this month, seemingly one of the first such events in a U.S. courtroom.
AI Avatar Confronts Killer at Sentencing
An AI-generated avatar of Christopher Pelkey, created by his family, spoke in Maricopa County Superior Court on May 1, as a judge prepared to sentence Gabriel Paul Horcasitas for shooting and killing Pelkey in a 2021 road-rage incident, as reported by Reuters.
“It is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” the Pelkey avatar says in the video. “In another life, we probably could have been friends.”
The Pelkey avatar is seen in the video with a long beard and green sweatshirt on a white background. He warns at the beginning that he is an AI version of Pelkey, which can be discerned from the holes in the audio and slightly mismatched mouth movement.
Pelkey was 37 years old at the time of the shooting, a U.S. Army veteran.
The video introduced new usage of AI in the legal system, which has contemplated the fast-growing technology with a combination of wonder and fear.
It is usually a court’s strict rule on the kind of information that can be brought to the court’s attention in a legal proceeding, and several lawyers have been sanctioned after AI systems produced fake cases they quote in legal briefs.
Stacey Wales played the AI-generated video of her brother as a victim impact statement during the sentencing of his killer in an Arizona court. https://t.co/5OeEhOxOLe
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 8, 2025
Emotional Impact Over Evidentiary Value
Pelkey’s relatives were allowed to have more room to tender the AI generated video to the judge at sentencing because it was not evidence in the case. Horcasitas, who received a 10.5-year sentence to state prison, had already been convicted on manslaughter and endangerment charges.
Pelkey’s sister Stacey Wales said she scripted the AI-generated message after finding it difficult to express years of grief and pain in her statement. She said she was not ready to forgive Horcasitas but believed that her brother would be more understanding.
“The goal was to humanize Chris, to reach the judge, and let him know his impact on this world and that he existed,” she told Reuters.
Generative AI, Wales said, is “just another avenue that you can use to reach somebody.”
Wales said she collaborated with her husband and a family friend, who all work in the tech industry, to develop it.
AI’s Role in Justice Sparks Ethical Debate
Harry Surden, a law professor at the University of Colorado, said the use of generative AI material in court brings up ethical questions because other people might try to use those tools to play on the emotions of the judges and the juries. The content is a simulation of reality, not the verifiable evidence that courts usually consider, Surden said, as reported by Reuters.
“What we’re seeing is the simulations have gotten so good that it completely bypasses our natural skepticism and goes straight to our emotion,” he said.
