Guilty or not guilty – could computers replace judges in a court of law?

Weighing up the pros and cons of a case, discarding irrelevancies, assessing the likelihood of statements being the truth or a lie. it's all in a day's work for a judge in a court. But could computers replace judges, if programmed correctly? Could a computer weigh the evidence and decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty?

AI as part of the legal judgement process

Early in 2021 the Federal Court of Australia ruled that an inventor can be non-human, meaning that an artificial intelligence (AI) could hold a patent.

This decision was later overturned on appeal, but for the AI it was a shining moment of legal recognition. (Please see Is an inventor necessarily human? Or could it be an artificial intelligence (AI) system as well? Which case won?)