During Georgia Supreme Court oral arguments on March 18, 2026, in Hannah Payne’s appeal of her 2023 murder conviction, Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson confronted Clayton County ADA Deborah Leslie over serious errors in the state’s filings and the trial court’s denial order. Peterson identified at least five nonexistent case citations, five more that failed to support the propositions cited, and three fabricated quotations.
For context, Payne, then 25, was convicted of murder and related charges for the May 7, 2019, fatal shooting of 62-year-old Kenneth Herring. After witnessing Herring’s pickup truck run a red light, strike a semi-trailer, and flee, Payne called 911 but pursued him, used her vehicle to block his truck, approached, and shot him during a confrontation.
In any case, the clip began when Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson announces, “So before you sit down, there’s one more thing I need to ask you about. Unfortunately, in reviewing the trial court’s order denying the motion for new trial, there are at least five citations to cases that don’t exist, and there’s at least five more citations to cases that do not support the proposition for which they’re cited, including three quotations that don’t exist.”
“My understanding is that you prepared the order for new the denial order for the trial court, were those citations in the version of the order that you submitted to the trial court?” the astute judge said, totally devastating the incompetent attorney.
Freaking out, Deborah Leslie, stated, “No, Your Honor, I do not believe so they were not I did prepare an order. That order was revised.” The judge interjected, “So…those non-existent cases were cited in your initial brief opposing the motion for new trial…?” Floundering, Leslie claimed, “I’m not aware of that, but I would be glad to research that and provide the court with a supplement.”
Watch the clip here:
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Reacting to the embarrassing clip, a viral post read, “An absolutely excruciating moment at the Georgia Supreme Court this week. Justice Peterson pressed state attorney Deborah Leslie over her citations to cases that apparently don’t exist.”
“Failure to research a basic point of law is almost, but not quite, deficient performance de facto,” Appellate attorney Fleischman said. “Trial counsel’s failure to understand the law dictated the result of this trial, regardless of the facts, and that is why this was ineffective assistance of counsel.”
Responding to the situation, the Clayton Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tasha Mosley confirmed that her office is investigating how the filings were created.“We are still investigating the matter and that brief on how that brief came to be, and the arguments. We are just as horrified as I sat and watched it also. This is not how my office operates. This is not how I expect my office to operate.”
Featured image from embedded video