Thursday, March 24, 2005

9th Circuit Upholds Fingerprint Testimony

The Ninth Circuit has issued an unpublished opinion upholding the government's fingerprint testimony in a criminal prosecution. The defendant invoked the recent FBI solicitation for research on fingerprint identification methodologies, arguing that if the FBI admitted the need for further research, the reliability of fingerprint identification must currently be in doubt. The panel rejected that argument, noting that the FBI solicitation did not call into question the validity of the existing research on which the prosecution's expert had relied. Moreover, the comparisons at issue were between two sets of rolled prints, which the court characterized as more reliable than comparisons with partial prints.

See United States v. Sanchez-Birruetta, No. 04-30150 (9th Cir. Mar. 18, 2005) (Hug, Berzon, & Bybee, JJ.).

posted by pn at 4:52 PM  

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Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.