Tag: NHSEB case analysis

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2025-2026 NHSEB Case 15 Dead Men DO Tell Tales

Footage of murder victim Chris Pelkey played in court during sentencing of his killer

This past May, a judge in Arizona viewed AI-generated “testimony” from murder victim Chris Pelkey during the sentencing of his killer. If you watch the video above, you’ll see that the technology is pretty basic. It’s Mr. Pelkey’s likeness and apparent voice, which is confirmed with included footage recorded prior to his death. But the special effects aren’t seamless – it’s pretty obvious it’s a deepfake, which makes sense since Mr. Pelkey had been killed four years prior.

Interestingly, Mr. Pelkey’s likeness speaks of mercy and forgiveness. He says that he and his killer might have been friends in another life. And at the end, there’s footage of him fishing, suggesting a peaceful afterlife. Rather than his avatar’s script being generated by AI, it was written by his sister who had been thinking about what she’d say in her post-trial sentencing impact statement for at least two years. In crafting the script, she interviewed Mr. Pelkey’s elementary schoolteachers, his prom date, fellow Army servicemembers, friends, and other family.

My team discussed this case briefly, and one worry was that judges might put more stock in testimony of this nature than is deserved. We can’t know for sure what murder victims might have wanted. Judges realize this, but might be inappropriately swayed to grant more weight to speculation from an AI-generated video figure as opposed to a family member. In this case, Mr. Pelkey’s avatar suggested a possible desire for leniency. But there’s no reason to think that would always be the case were this to become common practice. And perhaps driven by the Mr. Pelkey’s avatar’s warmth and personability, the judge ultimately sentenced his killer to 10.5 years in prison, which was 1 year more than prosecutors requested.

Further, as broached by the case writers, usage of speculative testimony from a deceased victim opens the door to using the same from deceased, uncooperative, or hard-to-locate witnesses. A prosecutor or defense attorney could imagine what a witness might have said were they able to testify (and probably imagine testimony that would be most helpful for their case), and pass off hearsay as firsthand testimony using a similar AI-avatar technique. The jury could be reminded that such a deepfake witness wasn’t real. But they’d likely still be more emotionally swayed than warranted.

As you continue to think about the stakeholders, benefits, drawbacks and risks of allowing deepfakes in the courtroom, work through coach Michael Andersen’s excellent study guide below, which includes a link to a Court TV interview with Mr. Pelkey’s sister.

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2025-2026 IEB Regionals Case 1 and NHSEB Regionals Case 12 A Pound of Flesh

Discussion on the proposal featuring two former prisoners – clip from Coach Michael’s attached study guide

IEB case 1 and NHSEB case 12, “A Pound of Flesh” (yep, same case) is about the Massachusetts legislature’s proposal to knock time off of prisoners’ sentences in exchanged for organ and bone marrow donations. We could put “donations” in scare quotes because depending on their environment, incarcerated individuals may not be making sufficiently free choices. But that’s just one factor to consider – here are several more based on discussions with my IEB and NHEB teams, followed by an excellent study guide by coach Michael Andersen. If you’re open to sharing your thoughts on this case, please share in a comment.

  • The proposed law would cap sentence reductions at 1 year, presumably awarding more time off for more invasive/dangerous/long-term detrimental donations and/or more needed organs.
  • There’s a shortage of organs for certain minority groups, and this program could rectify that unfairness, making it less difficult for minorities in need to receive an organ.
  • Any reduction in criminals’ sentences could be perceived to dishonor their victims or victims’ loved ones.
  • Allowing inmates to donate organs could serve their rehabilitation and inspire additional character growth, igniting a habit of giving and expanding their concern for others.
  • Such donations could be likened to organ selling given prisoners’ less than ideal circumstances, but we typically endorse monetary compensation for blood and gamete donations, as well as for surrogate mothering, so this wouldn’t necessarily render the practice unacceptable (though there are differences – blood regenerates and wombs can gestate multiple times, whereas kidneys do not grow back).

Finally, something my teams didn’t consider, but The Young Turk commentators brought up in one of the clips shared in coach Michael ‘s study guide below, is that were this proposal to become law, there’s a risk that sentences might become longer or prison conditions worse in order to coerce more “donations.” Hopefully the prisons system would not do this. But given the unmet needs of many waiting for various transplants, it’s definitely a risk.

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2025-2026 NHSEB Regionals Case 3 Public Record, Private Lives

Case 3 in the NHSEB case set winds up being largely about interpersonal ethics, but begins with a privacy policy frame. Coach Michael Andersen in Washington shared the below excellent study guide, which recommends the above excellent privacy-related video by Ethics Bowl researcher and advocate Michael Vazquez at UNC. My team discussed the case week before last, then revisited it briefly last week after watching the video – excellent context which helped sharpen their view. Thanks to both Michaels!

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2025-2026 NHSEB Regional Case 9 Pulled to Protect

NHSEB Case 9 “Pulled to Protect” pits parents’ rights to raise their children how they think best against society’s responsibility to ensure all kids enjoy an adequately supportive childhood. As the case analogizes, we’d intervene if parents allowed a child to play with fire (imagine your neighbor’s 9-year-old mixing gasoline with fireworks – you’d call somebody!). But the question here is whether we should similarly intervene when parents fail to ensure their kids are adequately educated, which sometimes can be motivated by understandable reasons, such as the desire to preserve their way of life (example: the Amish).

I’ve actually been using an ethics journal article to cover a similar, overlapping issue in my college ethics classes since 2020. “Sport, Parental Autonomy, and Children’s Right to an Open Future” by Nicholas Dixon is ultimately about parents appropriately supporting their kids’ athletic interests (not living vicariously through them, exposing them to various options to see what resonates, and only pushing extended time and effort when they love a sport and are truly great at it). But he touches on the exact issue and Supreme Court case as this Ethics Bowl case, “Pulled to Protect.”

What’s more, coach Michael Andersen’s team just covered this case, he shared his awesome-as-always study guide (which includes multiple bonus resources), and it and my 9-minute lecture on the Dixon article are below. Enjoy!

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2024-2025 NHSEB Regional Case 3 It Tastes Like Dog Food Study Guide with Bonus AI Script Experiments

Here’s a really nice study guide from Coach Michael Andersen with two superb generative AI experiments on the case, as well as a bonus guide on evaluating sources on controversial topics.

Mr. A is going above and beyond per usual! And I think the generative AI engagement stuff is especially cool. Give his strategies a try with other cases and let us know what’s working, what isn’t, etc.