A tale of murder, artificial intelligence, & forgiveness

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

Should AI give you a voice? Even when you've been murdered?

An AI avatar of a murder victim addressed his killer in court last week, and it may have been the first admittance of an AI-generated victim impact statement in a US court. Chris Pelkey, who was shot in a road rage incident in 2021, was recreated in a video made by his sister to offer forgiveness to his killer. This could mark the start of a new relationship between AI and the law, but will it change the relationship between us and the law? And what are the broader impacts we might see on our culture?

Brittany sits down with NPR digital news reporter Juliana Kim and Brandon Blankenship, assistant professor and director of the pre-law program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to find out.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Sam Sanders here with KCRW, personally inviting you to check out my new podcast.
0:05.9	It's an entertainment show that tries to figure out what makes the culture tick and tell the stories behind creators we love.
0:12.8	New episodes are out every Friday, wherever you get your podcast.
0:17.0	Listen to The Sam Sanders Show, part of the NPR Podcast Network.
0:25.8	Okay. Listen to the Sam Sanders Show, part of the NPR podcast network. Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:49.6	The other day, I was scrolling NPR's homepage, and I saw a story that absolutely stopped me in my tracks.
0:59.5	An AI video of a manslaughter victim was used to address his killer in a court of law.
1:09.0	Hello. Just to be clear for everyone seeing this, I am a version of Chris Pelke recreated through AI that uses my picture and my voice profile.
1:14.5	So I called up NPR digital news reporter, Juliana Kim, to learn more about what happened.
1:22.1	So back in 2021, a man named Christopher Pelke was shot and killed in a road rage incident.
1:28.5	His case initially went to court in 2023, but it had to be retried because of some procedural issues.
1:33.2	And it's why it took until this month for the man who shot him to face sentencing.
1:37.9	And during this whole time, Christopher's sister, Stacey Wales,
1:42.1	had been mulling over what she would say in her victim in PAC statement,
1:45.3	which is a chance for loved ones to talk about their grief before the judge hands down a sentence. What would you say if you only had one last
1:51.8	chance to speak up for your brother? To sum up a life. She told me that while she was at a loss for
1:57.7	words, it was clear what her brother would say. So she asked her husband
2:02.4	and their business partner, both of whom have experienced using AI to help. Her plea was this.
2:08.6	This whole trial is about him, because of him, and for him. And he doesn't get a say, he doesn't get a
2:15.6	chance to speak. We have to give him a voice.
2:18.7	They only had a few days and had to source a bunch of different AI tools, but in the end,
2:23.5	they actually pulled it off.
	...

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