A state contract worth $200,000 for attorney William Lunsford, who was sanctioned just weeks ago for court filings that contained fake citations generated by artificial intelligence, was put on hold Thursday as Alabama lawmakers raised questions about the state’s prolonged and costly prison litigation.

The contract would place Lunsford on a lawsuit defending the Alabama Department of Corrections in a civil lawsuit filed in 2018 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Lunsford and two other lawyers were sanctioned after a filing was found to contain several AI-generated, nonexistent case citations.

Representative Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, noted both the ongoing nature of the lawsuit and the recent controversy involving Lunsford’s use of AI in court filings.

“This is a new $200,000 contra

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