Fingerprints in Criminal Investigation Procedures

Fingerprint Evidence

Fingerprint identification has been around for a long time. It has nearly a century of court acceptance in the United States. Yet, in the aftermath of United States Supreme Court cases like Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993) requiring courts to determine the reliability (validity) of underlying techniques before admitting expert opinion based on it, questions are bound to be raised about the scientific legitimacy of many of the techniques commonly used in crime laboratories, fingerprint identification among them (Moenssens 1). From this data, not anything examines out of the ordinary. Anearer gaze into this case discloses a significant distinction from other situations in the past. Judge Louis H. Pollak has directed that fingerprint identification is unreliable. Judge Pollak ostracised professionals from testifying if a fingerprint taken from a misdeed view matched that of a defendant (The Economist 3). This contentious decision comes at an issue in time where fingerprint clues have been acknowledged in courtrooms over the United States of America since the early twentieth century. Judges have habitually considered fingerprint clues as scientifically sound in the court system (Stern 3).

In making his ruling, Judge Pollak relied on a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The conclusion presents referees the power to decide what scientific evidence is admissible in a trial. The court established the "Daubert" guidelines, which are conceived to prompt inquiries about the technical sturdiness of certain kinds of clues, such as if it has be adequately checked, what it's mistake rate is, and, in the case of fingerprinting, if there are standards for what constitutes a agree" (The Economist 2).

In order for us to work out whether or not fingerprint clues are scientifically sound, we need to gaze at what constitutes a match. Fingerprints are unique. Each person's fingerprint is like a snowflake, there are millions of them, yet no two are exactly alike. I personally find it hard to take a latent publish from the scene of a crime, and contrast it to a database of millions of fingerprints. Fingerprint databases are constructed from police stations, jails, and identification programs like Identi-Kid.

Daubert hearing

The attitude rules the admissibility of technical evidence in Federal court and numerous state and local jurisdictions which have adopted it. Daubert attitude states that the government directions of Evidence superseded "general acceptance" tests for admissibility of innovative technical clues; the rigid "general acceptance" check, which originated from Frye v United States, 293 F2d. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), is at odds with the liberal thrust of the government directions of Evidence (Meagher 2).

Defendants Carlos Ivan Llera-Plaza, Wilfredo Martinez Acosta, and Victor Rodriguez are charged with a sequence of four killings for hire committed in Puerto Rico and Philadelphia in the summer of 1998. The four juvenile men slain were Ricky Guevara Velez in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico on June 17, 1998, Luis Garcia and Jorge Martinez on July 12, 1998 in Philadelphia and Jose Hernandez on September 24, 1998 in Philadelphia. The killings were conveyed out to farther the ...