Fingerprinting Identification and Understanding the Term Daubert Hearing

scientific law enforcement in his creation of a mass fingerprint file in 1926 and the

For over a century fingerprints have been one of the most used tools of forensic science. Fingerprints have been used to identify criminals of small crimes

The first case of Brandon Mayfield describes a partial fingerprint found by authorities on the bag of detonators in the 2004 subway in Madrid, Spain detonations killing approximately 2,000 people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for generations routinely testifies as fingerprints being “infallible” with no chance of being wrong. By the same token, backed by independent expert Kenneth Moses he confirms the FBI analysis was correct. Never the less, the Spanish Police identified another individual

The next significant advancement in fingerprinting was achieved by an Englishman, Dr. Henry Faulds, who created a fingerprint classification method and suggested using printers’ ink to obtain quality fingerprints (The History of Fingerprints). Perhaps the most important advancement in fingerprinting came in 1892, when a British Anthropologist, Sir Francis Galton, published the book Fingerprints. For a while it had been thought that no two fingerprints were identical. However, Galton became the first to scientifically prove this, as well as the fact that fingerprints remain unchanged throughout a person’s life (The History of Fingerprints). It was these two facts that made fingerprinting the preferred method of identification.

Mainly in criminal act scene investigation, fingerprint machinery progressions have been responding to with arms open. The theory of biological exclusivity has been urbanized and substantiated by erudition and the judges have maintained this authenticity in the case of Daubert. Although the threat of inaccurate condemnation offers equally to ethical and feasible viewpoint on why dependable and legitimate forensic science is so significant, normal expert substantiation creed also dictates its legitimacy as a precondition for tolerability. Also in 1993 Daubert v. Merrell Dow made it unblemished that adjudicators have a gatekeeping answerability with admiration to expert substantiation. Federal courts as well as the states have comprised Daubert,

In my interview with Professor Killgallon, my criminal justice professor we talked about the Daubert Standard. The Daubert Standard is the assessment of how the courts treat an expert testimony. The standards make sure that the evidence presented to the court used scientific methodology and if accepted science was used to gain the evidence. The Daubert Standard is the new paradigm shift in many states in the United States. It took the place of the Frye test, which was used for many years before. The Daubert standard is the better test to use in courts because it makes the experts present more evidence to make sure that the science or evidence was not faked.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, held that the District Court erred as a matter of law in applying Daubert, and held that the Daubert factors did not apply to Mr. Carlson’s testimony. (Kumho Tire Co., 2015). Judge Stephen Breyer delivered the opinion for the United States Supreme Court holding that the Daubert factors may apply to the testimony of engineers and other experts who are not scientists. The District Courts decision to not admit Mr. Carlson’s expert testimony was lawful because it found his methodology unreliable after appropriate examinations (Rule 702,

The automated Fingerprint Identification System is also known as the AFIS within the law enforcement division (FBI, 2010). This system is an important element in the criminal justice system as some of its features encompass the storing of data, encoding, and fingerprint and facial comparison through graphics and other techniques. Law officials many centuries ago in the pursuit of positively identifying someone suspected of guilt have long used fingerprints techniques. Fingerprinting is also used in branches of our government, and in the Pentagon, the authentication method of fingerprints is used permit access to specified zones inside the building. Fingerprints are an effective and very precise method of identification purposes that does not pose

“Fingerprint recognition is one of the divorce inference using the impressions made by the minute ridge formations or patterns found on the fingertips. No two people have exactly the same arrangement of the ridge patterns, and the remaining patterns of any one individual unchanged. Fingerprints infallible provide a means of personal identification. Other personal characteristics may change, but not fingerprints”. (1)

Fingerprinting is used for many things, such as a robbery, or at a crime scene. Fingerprints were first discovered in 1870 by Alphonse Bertillon, who was a French anthropologist. In 1892, Juan Vucetich had made the first criminal report using a fingerprint. In 1905 America used fingerprints for identification. When America started using fingerprints for identification they had to match the fingerprints manually when needed. When technology was able to enter fingerprints, and match them with anonymous ones, it helped identification immensely.

Then William Herschel began to use fingerprints in his role as Chief Magistrate in 1958. In 1877, he imposed the fingerprints as authentication authorities. In 1880, he wrote an article “skin furrow of the hand”, where he sanctioned the use of fingerprints as a method of signature and identification. In the same year, the individuality of fingerprints was suggested for the first time scientifically by Henry Fauld.

According to Jain Anil, fingerprint-based identification is the oldest method which has been successfully used in numerous applications and though Bertillon’s anthropometry raised many valid points in forensic science, it was discarded and replaced by the fingerprint identification method after Bertillon’s death 1914.

Every time somebody touches something, they leave behind a unique signature that forever links them to that object. This link is their fingerprints, which are unique to every person, for no two people have the same set, not even family members or identical twins. Palms and toes also leave prints behind, but these are far less commonly found during crime scene investigations. Therefore, fingerprints provide an identification process that is applicable to background checks, biometric security, mass disaster identification, and most importantly, crime scene investigations. Fingerprints are so differentiated because they are made up of distinct patterns of ridges and furrows on the fingers. The ridges are the “raised” portions of the prints, and the furrows are the “recessed” portions. This perceived uniqueness has led some people to falsely accept fingerprint analysis as absolute scientific fact. Although overall fingerprints are reliable, there are definitely situations where their accuracy can come into question.

Study of fingerprints scientifically is termed as dactylography . Sir William James Herschel taught to be the first person to identify uniqueness in fingerprints India

DNA fingerprinting is a scientific technology involving the extraction, replication and arrangement of strands of an organism’s DNA. This results in the formation of a genetically distinctive fingerprint that is unique to the organism which the DNA sample was originally extracted from. Because of the specificity of a DNA fingerprint, the application of this technology can have a substantial influence on many aspects of society. Accessibility to a DNA database allows for higher efficiency in forensic investigations, personal identification, maternal and paternal testing. The availability of a national database to police officers and forensic scientists would equate to increased productivity in investigations and prosecution of suspects in a