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Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Challenging the Fingerprint Expert

     During the first ninety years of fingerprint history, defense attorneys whose clients' latent fingerprints were found as the scenes of crimes had one option--plead them guilty in return for a lighter sentence. No one considered questioning the credibility or competence of a fingerprint expert, and no one dared challenge the scientific reliability of fingerprint identification. Fingerprints either matched or they didn't. There was nothing to challenge.

     Those days are over. Since 2000, there have been numerous cases of latent fingerprint misidentification in the United States and Europe. As it turns out, many fingerprint experts in the United States are undertrained, dishonest, and biased in favor of the police. Most of the nation's competent examiners are overworked due to crime lab budget cuts. Today, it is not unusual for a criminal trial to feature dueling fingerprint experts. This is bad for forensic science and the criminal justice system.   

2 comments:

  1. Does anyone know how latent prints were lifted prior to 1930 (u/o cellophane tape)?

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