Clayton County District Attorney Tasha Mosley apologized to the Georgia Supreme Court in her letter, dated Friday, adding that "strict disciplinary action has been taken against the attorney including, but not limited to, a grievance with the State Bar of Georgia, suspension, performance plan development, loss of privileges, etc.," after Assistant District Attorney Deborah Leslie included the hallucinated case citations in a draft order prosecutors filed in their case against Hannah Payne.
Mosley said in the letter that that prosecutors "must always have respect for the law and honesty, even when mistakes have been made, and must never act in an unprofessional or unethical manner," but said that on the day the high court held oral arguments in the appeal of Payne's felony murder case, she "watched in dismay as a member of my team violated these ethical standards."
The district attorney's office posted the letter after Payne moved on Friday for the Georgia Supreme Court to order Mosley to produce additional communications she reportedly sent the court following Leslie's acknowledgment of her use of AI in writing a draft order for the trial court.
Payne is seeking a second chance to defend herself against murder, assault and false imprisonment charges after she shot and killed a fellow motorist who drove away from the scene of a vehicle collision, arguing her attorney in the underlying criminal matter provided ineffective counsel by not including valid arguments that she was attempting a citizen's arrest.
Prosecutors opposed the request, and Leslie provided the trial court with a draft order denying Payne's motion for a new trial, which the court ultimately utilized. That order was later found to have included numerous citation errors.
Payne's motion came on the same day Leslie filed a brief requesting that the botched citations be stricken from her draft order, stating the "errors were not intentional" but arguing they were not substantive to the prosecution's arguments.
"The state takes full responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of its filings and regrets any confusion caused to the court," the prosecutor wrote. "Importantly, the withdrawal of the aforementioned authorities does not affect the validity of the state's arguments or the correctness of the trial court's ruling."
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Nels S.D. Peterson raised the issue of false case citations during oral argument on March 18, when he asked Leslie about the trial court's order denying Payne's motion for a new trial, which Leslie drafted.
"Unfortunately, in reviewing the trial court's order denying the motion for new trial, there are at least five citations to cases that don't exist, and there's at least five more citations to cases that do not support the proposition for which they're cited, including three quotations that don't exist," Justice Peterson said at the time.
"My understanding is that you prepared the ... denial order for the trial court," Justice Peterson said. "Were those citations in the version of the order that you submitted to the trial court?"
Leslie said in response at the time that she "did not believe so," later adding, "I'm not aware of that, but I would be glad to research that and provide the court with a supplement."
In her supplement on Friday, Leslie admitted that the citation errors were her doing. In an affidavit, Leslie said that, in attempting to "provide a more detailed explanation of the relevant legal principles," she utilized both traditional research tools and AI but did not independently verify the case citations included by the software.
Leslie said in the affidavit that she has since implemented safeguards to ensure such errors do not reoccur, promising to verify every citation and, when possible, request an outside review of citations by fellow attorneys or staff members.
"Counsel candidly acknowledges that it is her responsibility to ensure that all cited authority is accurate, properly attributed, and directly supportive of the propositions for which it is offered," the prosecutor said. "The inclusion of these citations was not intended to misstate the law or mislead the court, but rather an effort, to provide a more detailed legal framework."
Acknowledging the errors, Leslie also pointed out what she said were 22 years of practicing without incurring any disciplinary action or misconduct allegations and expressed her "sincere regret" that the errors occurred.
In the criminal case, Payne was found guilty of various criminal counts including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment after shooting and killing a motorist named Kenneth Herring, who had fled the scene of a collision with a semi truck.
Payne, who said she was an eyewitness to the collision, allegedly followed Herring after he drove off from the scene against police orders, with an off-duty officer at the scene reportedly requesting that she tail his vehicle to identify its license plate number.
According to Payne, Harring later pulled to a stop in a turn lane, and she pulled in front of his vehicle. She then approached and asked him to step out of the car, she said, and he began choking her. After she warned him that she was armed with a gun, he did not let up, according to Payne, and she shot and killed him.
Eyewitnesses who testified at her criminal trial gave reports with conflicting details, with at least one indicating that Payne had pulled her vehicle in front of Herring's, forcing him to stop, and others sharing their belief that Payne was the instigator of the physical altercation that ended in Herring's death.
A jury found Payne guilty on all criminal counts, and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Payne moved for a new trial, and the trial court denied the bid, leading to her appeal, in which she argued she had received ineffective assistance by counsel.
On appeal, Payne said trial counsel made a mistake when it blocked her from arguing that she was attempting a citizen's arrest and that she was acting in defense of others.
Payne's trial counsel believed a "citizen's arrest" defense was unavailable because the statute permitting citizen's arrests had been repealed, but on appeal, Payne said the law was still in effect at the time of the 2019 incident and cannot be removed ex post facto.
The choice not to argue for a "citizen's arrest" defense was an error, not strategy, and prejudiced Payne, she told the high court. Because Herring fled the scene of the collision, appeared intoxicated and was driving erratically, Payne argued, she was legally permitted to attempt a citizen's arrest.
As Payne was only permitted to use a self-defense argument before the trial court, the jury had no choice but to find her guilty, she argued in her appellant brief.
"Because the jury was instructed only on self-defense, they could not acquit Ms. Payne unless every use of force — including blocking Mr. Herring in — was in self-defense, which was impossible," Payne said. "Again and again, the state told the jury that if the false imprisonment was not in self-defense, nothing that followed could be justified, even if Mr. Herring was trying to kill Ms. Payne to escape justice."
Prosecutors said Payne's argument falls flat.
"Neither citizen's arrest nor defense of others were supported by the evidence, and no reasonable probability exists that the omitted instructions affected the outcome," the prosecution wrote in Friday's supplemental brief. "Therefore, Payne's ineffective assistance claim fails as a matter of law."
When reached for comment, Payne's attorney, Andrew Fleischman, said, "As a criminal defense attorney, I've noticed that very often, people that do bad things say they are taking full responsibility only in an effort to avoid real consequences."
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The State of Georgia is represented by Deborah L. Leslie of the Clayton County District Attorney's Office.
Hannah Payne is represented by Andrew Fleischman of Sessions & Fleischman LLC and Brian Steel of The Steel Law Firm PC.
The case is Hannah Renee Payne v. The State, case number S26A0459, in the Supreme Court of Georgia.
--Editing by Rich Mills.
Clarification: This article has been clarified to better describe Leslie's suspension from her role within the Clayton County District Attorney's Office.
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