Payne v. State

── Payne v. State ── Court: Supreme Court of Georgia Date: May 05, 2026 Category: General NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion. In the Supreme Court of Georgia No. S26A0459 Hannah Renee Payne v. The State On Appeal from the Superior Court of Clayton County No. 2019CR0173714 Argued: March 18, 2026 - Decided: May 5, 2026 LAND, Justice. Hannah Payne was sentenced to life in prison plus 13 years for the murder and false imprisonment of Kenneth Herring and the possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. In response to Payne’s motion for new trial, the assistant district at- torney assigned to the case, Deborah Leslie, filed a brief that con- tained non-existent cases and cases that do not stand for the prop- osition asserted in the brief. In an order largely prepared by ADA Leslie, the trial court denied Payne’s motion for new trial. That order contained citations to non-existent cases and cases that do not stand for the proposition asserted in the order. In response to Payne’s appeal, ADA Leslie once again cited cases that do not stand for the proposition asserted. As a result of these filings, we have been sidetracked from our obligation of resolving the merits of Payne’s appeal and have had to devote significant time and re- sources to the discovery of this misconduct and deciding what to do about it. As outlined below, we admonish ADA Leslie and the Clayton County District Attorney’s office; we sanction ADA Leslie and suspend her privilege to practice in our Court; and we vacate the trial court’s order denying Payne’s motion for new trial and remand the case to the trial court with instruction that it issue a new order that does not contain the citation of fake cases or other misattributed case citations. 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 Sep- tember 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 sup- plemental brief and affidavit in which she acknowledged using artificial intelligence software to draft the State’s briefs in oppo- sition to Payne’s motion for new trial and the trial court’s pro- posed order denying the motion for new trial. ADA Leslie acknowledged that the case citations generated by artificial intel- ligence 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. In addition to the nine cases listed in this Court’s March 20, 2025, order, ADA Leslie identified twelve additional cases in her brief- ing before the trial court that she ackno