The issue of whether identification science in general, and fingerprint identification in particular, may be called a "science" is one that has engendered differing opinions. Last year, a United States District Court, in a criminal case, had to decide a motion in limine that sought, inter alia, to exclude fingerprint identification as non-scientific. The challenge was brought in the case of United States vs. Byron Mitchell, CR No. 96-407-1, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In September of 1999, the Honorable J. Curtis Joyner, presiding, upheld the admissibility of fingerprint evidence under Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Supreme Court's decisions in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993) and Kumho Tire Co. V. Carmichael, 119 S.Ct. 116 (199).
The court specifically took judicial notice of a number of different facts:
- that human friction ridges are unique and permanent throughout the area of the friction ridge skin, including small friction ridge areas;
- that human friction ridge skin arrangements are unique and permanent.
In the process of deciding that case, the court also granted the government's request to exclude the testimony of two defense experts who testified that fingerprint comparisons were not scientific evidence under Daubert.
Prior to the decision, we had published a related story on the topic that the court had to decide. See, "Is Fingerprint Identification A 'Science.'"
With the permission of the www.latent-prints Webmaster, we draw our readers' attention to a talk by Dr. John A. Thornton, delivered on May 9, 2000 at the 84th Annual Training Conference of the California State Division of International Association of Identification (IAI) in Laughlin, Nevada, on the subject of the scientific justifications of fingerprint identification. The talk is titled, "Setting Standards In The Comparison And Identification" and can be accessed directly by clicking on:
http://www.latent-prints.com/Thornton.htm
The main page of the same website lists a number of articles on related subjects, such as the reliability of a fingerprint examiner's conclusions, and others. Go to the main page by clicking on
http://www.latent-prints.com
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