Thread

1. dooglius · 1791043246 · focus · HN ↗

   I'm confused. The video was shared by the victim's family, and it has him forgive the killer, and the judge believed it, and the killer's legal team complained? Isn't it in their favor?

   1. omnicognate · 1791046172 · focus · HN ↗

      It&#x27;s a disappointingly poor article from the BBC. This one is much better and has more information: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lawcommentary.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;arizona-court-ai-generated-victim-impact-video-sentence" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lawcommentary.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;arizona-court-ai-gene...

      The sentence the judge handed down was the maximum available and more than the prosecutors requested. The defence was apealing the sentencing, which was the judge&#x27;s choice, not the jury&#x27;s verdict. The judge was influenced by the video (as the appeals court concluded) and, regardless of the intentions of the prosecution, seeing a fake image of the victim &quot;forgiving&quot; the defendant could have pushed him towards a tougher sentence.

      I doubt the direction of the influence actually mattered for the appeals court decision, though - they just vacated the sentence as the video wasn&#x27;t allowed by law - and as the sentence was the maximum possible for the conviction it doesn&#x27;t sound like there was much risk in appealing.

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