SJC to hear arguments on banning fingerprint evidence

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Date: September 5, 2005 10:19:32 PM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Subject: SJC to hear arguments on banning fingerprint evidence



SJC to hear arguments on banning fingerprint evidence

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff  |  September 5, 2005

For more than a century, a fingerprint match has been considered
nearly unimpeachable evidence in a criminal case. Trace a latent
print at a crime scene to the fingertip of a suspect, goes the
conventional wisdom, and you've got the bad guy.

But the bedrock forensic science has been under intense scrutiny
recently as a result of a series of high-profile errors by
fingerprint examiners around the country, one of which led to the
imprisonment of an innocent Boston man after a false match tied him
to the shooting of a police sergeant. Some critics say fingerprint
analysis isn't even a science.

Now the controversy is coming before the highest court in
Massachusetts. The Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear
arguments Wednesday about whether to quash key fingerprint evidence
in the case of Terry L. Patterson, who is being retried in the 1993
slaying of a Boston detective.

In addition, Patterson's lawyer in the case, John H. Cunha Jr., wants
the SJC to do what no other state supreme court has done: bar
fingerprint analysis from being presented in all criminal trials
until it is subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny and proven
reliable.

Cunha, who has enlisted 15 scientists and scholars to bolster his
argument, said fingerprint analysis has never been systematically
studied for its reliability. It lacks uniform standards for how many
characteristics must be present in a latent print before analysts can
declare a match, he said, nor are there statistical models to
calculate how often analysts err. Instead, its reputation for
infallibility approaches an article of faith.

...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/09/05/ 
sjc_to_hear_arguments_on_banning_fingerprint_evidence/




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