Lab’s forensic check failure sparks fingerprints retesting (Chicago)Read More
Fingerprints
Crime scene forensics: How does it work?
Miscarriage of justice points to fingerprint flaws
Shirley McKie case: ‘Fingerprints are opinion not fact’ rule probe (Scotland)
Shirley McKie case: The 15-year-long legal battle that put forensic science in the dock (Scotland)
Analysis: Fingerprint experts need to re-examine their certainty – and culture change will take time
Footprints may help defeat criminals
Shoes matching Young crime scene prints never found
Review of the FBI’s Progress Responding to the Recommendations from the Mayfield Case
Five years after issuing recommendations regarding the fingerprint misidentification in the Mayfield case (March 2006), this report by the Office of the Inspector General examines the FBI’s progress implementing the recommendations. …the FBI Laboratory has adopted other measures intended to reduce the risk that an examiner’s ‘gut’ reaction might lead to an incorrect conclusion, including …
Review of the FBI’s Progress Responding to the Recommendations from the Mayfield CaseRead More
BBC Radio investigative program
Radio program that covers challenges to the reliability of fingerprint evidence, including bias. Includes coverage of the Brandon Mayfield case (from Mar. 10, 2011).
Restoring Hop Sing’s faith in forensic science
Willie Grimes case
A three-judge panel in NC decided Mr. Grimes was innocent of a 1987 rape conviction for which he had served more than 24 years. Fingerprints from the crime scene did not match Grimes, but the State withheld that evidence until the trial. In 2011, the prints were uploaded into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System and …
Sworls and Whorls: Litigating Post-Conviction Claims of Fingerprint Misidentification after the NAS Report
by Jacqueline McMurtrie, , Utah Law Review, Vol 2010, No. 2. – addresses uniqueness, individualization and infallibility claims of fingerprint examination, the history of latent print individualization, recent legal challenges to latent print individualization, and the NAS report and its use in post-conviction claims based upon new developments in forensic science.
National Academy of Sciences Report
See pp. 136-150 for the National Research Council’s assessment of the discipline of fingerprint analysis. The 2009 NAS Report cited “a thorough analysis of the ACE-V method” that concluded: “‘We have reviewed available scientific evidence of the validity of the ACE-V method and found none.’” pp. 142-143 (citation omitted).
Inspector General’s Report on the FBI Mayfield Error
A review of the FBI’s handling of the Brandon Mayfield case (March 2006). The Office of the Inspector General focuses on the causes of the fingerprint misidentification in the Mayfield case and proposes possible solutions to prevent future fingerprint analysis errors. The enormous size of the IAFIS database and the power of the IAFIS program …
Inspector General’s Report on the FBI Mayfield ErrorRead More