Arizona appeals court rules AI victim video affects sentencing, vacates sentence and remands for resentencing

In a manslaughter case, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the sentencing judge's hearing and crediting of an AI video generated from the victim's photo and voice archive constituted fundamental error, vacated the 10.5-year prison sentence and remanded for resentencing, while affirming the conviction. The court noted that the AI video did not record real events but was the victim's sister's imagination of what she might have said, yet presented with the victim's own image and voice and claiming to be her real self; this interpretive distance could not be eliminated by a disclaimer. The sentencing judge had said he liked the video and believed it came from the heart, and the court found this actually influenced the sentencing. The court also rejected the defendant's objection to the trial court's exclusion of the victim's text messages, finding them to be general character assessments rather than specific conduct, and that the probative value of texts sent three days before the victim's death was substantially outweighed by the risk of confusing the jury.