Within less than eighteen months, Frankie Johnson, incarcerated at William E. Donaldson prison near Birmingham, Alabama, reported being stabbed approximately 20 times. In December 2019, he was stabbed "at least nine times" in his housing unit. In March 2020, after being handcuffed to a desk by an officer post-group therapy, another inmate stabbed him five times. Later that year, in November, after being handcuffed and escorted to the prison yard, Johnson was attacked with an ice pick by another prisoner, receiving five to six stab wounds while two correctional officers watched; Johnson claims one officer encouraged the assault in retaliation for a prior dispute. In 2021, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Alabama prison officials citing failure to protect him, widespread violence, understaffing, overcrowding, and systemic corruption. To defend the case, the Alabama attorney general's office engaged Butler Snow, a law firm frequently paid millions by the state for defending its troubled prison system, particularly William Lunsford, head of its constitutional and civil rights group. However, the firm now faces sanctions from the federal judge overseeing Johnson's case after an attorney there, Matthew Reeves, working with Lunsford, cited non-existent cases generated by artificial intelligence (AI). This incident is part of a growing trend where attorneys face repercussions for including fabricated AI-generated information in legal filings. A global database has identified 106 such instances of “AI hallucinations” in court documents. Last year, an attorney was suspended for a year in Florida for citing fabricated AI-generated cases, and recently in California, a federal judge fined a firm over $30, 000 for including false AI-generated research in a brief. At a hearing in Birmingham, US District Judge Anna Manasco indicated she is considering various sanctions—ranging from fines and mandatory continuing legal education to referrals to licensing boards and temporary suspensions—against Butler Snow following Reeves’ use of ChatGPT to insert false citations in filings related to deposition and discovery disputes. Manasco criticized prior sanctions in other cases as inadequate, calling this case “proof positive” that they were insufficient. Butler Snow’s attorneys expressed remorse and accepted potential sanctions, noting a firm policy requiring approval before using AI for legal research. Reeves took full responsibility, admitting he disregarded this policy despite awareness of AI limitations, and asked that his colleagues not be punished. The firm was appointed and is paid by the state to defend Jefferson Dunn, former commissioner of Alabama’s Department of Corrections.

Lunsford has begun reviewing prior filings for other false citations but acknowledged that the firm’s response is not yet complete. Manasco gave Butler Snow ten days to file a motion describing their plan to address the issue before deciding on sanctions. The fraudulent AI citations surfaced amid a scheduling dispute. Butler Snow sought to depose Johnson, who remains incarcerated, but Johnson’s lawyers objected, citing incomplete documents they should receive beforehand. Butler Snow’s filing to enforce an expedited deposition cited four purported appellate cases authorizing such depositions, but all were fabricated. Some cases mimicked real citations but were either irrelevant or historically unrelated, such as a cited Kelley v. City of Birmingham case from 2021, which in reality was a 1939 speeding ticket case. Johnson’s attorneys filed a motion accusing Butler Snow of relying on “generative artificial intelligence” to create fabricated citations and identified another false citation in earlier discovery dispute filings. Manasco, noting the seriousness, conducted independent searches and found no evidence of the cited cases. Reeves admitted to using ChatGPT hastily to find citations without independently verifying them in Westlaw or Pacer and expressed deep regret. Damien Charlotin, a Paris-based legal researcher tracking such cases, notes an acceleration in filings containing false AI content recently but remarks that courts have been lenient, reserving severe penalties like large fines and suspensions mainly for lawyers who do not accept responsibility. He predicts stricter enforcement will eventually occur. Besides the Johnson case, Lunsford and Butler Snow hold contracts for several significant civil rights lawsuits against the Alabama Department of Corrections, including one by the US Department of Justice under the Trump administration in 2020 highlighting similar systemic problems violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. This case alone had a contract worth nearly $15 million over two years. Some Alabama lawmakers have questioned the substantial payments to Butler Snow, but the recent error has not shaken the attorney general’s confidence. At the hearing, when asked if they would continue with Butler Snow, an attorney from the attorney general’s office affirmed that Mr. Lunsford remains their “counsel of choice. ”