Why Criminal Defense Attorneys Must Shape the AI Being Used in Courts

By Andrew Walsh, JD — 2025-11-25

Andrew Walsh has spent nineteen years defending people the system had already decided were guilty. Federal public defense, then private practice — capital cases, federal drug charges, white collar fraud, immigration consequences. He came to IXO with a specific purpose: to ensure that AI tools being used in criminal proceedings reflect something closer to justice than the systems they're replacing.

The criminal legal system's AI problem

"The criminal legal system has an AI problem that most people don't know about," he says. "Risk assessment tools that inform bail decisions, recidivism prediction tools that influence sentencing, facial recognition evidence, predictive policing algorithms. AI is already deeply embedded in criminal proceedings. Most of it was built without significant input from defense attorneys."

His IXO work is focused primarily on bias evaluation in legal AI — testing risk assessment and prediction tools for disparate impact across demographic groups, and evaluating whether AI legal research tools produce balanced results that surface both inculpatory and exculpatory precedent.

The disclosure problem

"The disclosure problem is one I think about constantly. AI discovery tools can be built in ways that surface prosecution-favorable documents efficiently while burying defense-favorable ones. That's not necessarily intentional — it often reflects what the training data emphasized. But the constitutional implications are serious."

He also evaluates AI tools used in plea negotiation contexts. "Ninety-seven percent of federal convictions are guilty pleas. AI tools that model plea outcomes can influence whether defendants accept deals that aren't in their interest. That needs defense attorney input desperately."

Why he's here

Walsh is direct about his motivation: "I'm not here because I think AI can fix the criminal legal system. I'm here because it's coming whether I'm involved or not. I'd rather be involved."

Read Why Criminal Defense Attorneys Must Shape the AI Being Used in Courts on the IXO blog