Chandler road rage shooting victim speaks using artificial intelligence
CHANDLER, AZ (AZFamily) — Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed during a road rage incident in Chandler in 2021, but he still gave an impact statement during the sentencing for the shooter thanks to artificial intelligence.
His family created the AI statement using a previously recorded video, a picture and a script written by Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales. “I said, ‘I have to let him speak,’ and I wrote what he would have said, and I said, ‘That’s pretty good, I’d like to hear that if I was the judge.’”
A judge sentenced 50-year-old Gabriel Horcasitas to 10 and a half years in prison last week. He noted the forgiveness expressed in Pelkey’s AI statement during the sentencing.
“I want the world to know Chris existed,” Wales says. “If one person hears his name or sees this footage and goes to his Facebook page or looks him up on YouTube, they will hear Chris’s love.”
Wales herself is not ready to forgive Horcasitas, but when she wrote the script, she says she knew her brother would speak of forgiveness. “He stood for people, and for God, and for love,” she says.
Arizona State professor of law Gary Marchant says the use of AI in general is becoming more common in the courts. “If you look at the facts of this case, I would say that the value of it overweighed the prejudicial effect, but if you look at other cases, you could imagine where they would be very prejudicial,” he says.
Marchant is part of an Arizona Supreme Court committee that is evaluating AI and how it’s used in court.
“We’re trying to address how we should change the rules for AI evidence. The judicial system is moving to try to address this as proactively as possible. The problem, of course, is there are so many different possibilities here, some of which are more acceptable than others. How you draw the line is going to be very difficult, but certainly the courts seem to be moving forward to try to deal with this,” Marchant said.
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