Judge to Allow Fingerprint Testimony 
Thu Mar 14,11:16 AM ET 

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Writer 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal judge who previously barred
fingerprint testimony has changed his mind and will allow experts in a
capital case to testify about prints lifted from a crime scene.

Judge Louis H. Pollak reversed himself Wednesday, two weeks after a
hearing on the accuracy of fingerprint analysis, in a ruling that was
carefully watched by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

"In short, I have changed my mind," Pollak said after a lengthy
courtroom explanation of his 59-page opinion.

Pollak's initial ruling, 91 years after fingerprint evidence was first
admitted in an American courtroom, had challenged the infallibility of
fingerprints as a crime-solving tool.

Since the first conviction on fingerprint evidence in 1911 in the United
States, the system used in much of the world has changed little. A
person's fingerprint is classified by its arches, loops and whorls, then
compared to "latent" crime-scene fingerprints at various points.

In his earlier ruling on Jan. 7 — believed to be the first of its kind —
Pollak ruled that experts could testify about crime-scene prints and
compare them to a defendant's, but could not declare them a definite
match.

At Wednesday's hearing, the government presented data on long-secret
FBI (news - web sites) fingerprint examiner proficiency tests in the
hopes of addressing Pollak's conclusion that the accuracy of fingerprint
analysis had never been adequately tested.

Defense attorneys also presented experts who testified that the
proficiency exams appear to be crafted to ensure the test-taker's
success. Pollak did not disagree with that assessment, but said it wasn't
enough to forbid the testimony.

Among other factors cited in his January opinion, Pollak said that, unlike
DNA evidence, fingerprint evidence has not been scientifically tested, its
error rate has not been calculated, and there are no standards for what
constitutes a match. He did not dispute that each individual's fingerprints
are unique, but said that interpreting smeared, partial crime scene prints
is not infallible.

But Pollak concluded Wednesday that though the FBI tests are not
challenging and need improvement, there was no evidence that the error
rate for certified FBI fingerprint examiners is "unacceptably high."

He also said that one of his initial concerns had been that the United
States and England had inconsistent standards — the U.S. does not
require a minimum number of points to declare a match.

When he wrote his original opinion, he said, he wasn't aware that the
standards in England had recently changed. England, which until recently
had specific criteria for matching — like a fingerprint ridge splitting into
two or the contours of individual ridges — now is like the United States
in that it no longer requires a specific number of points to match up
before experts can conclude the prints came from the same person.

"We're grateful to Judge Pollak for giving us the opportunity to reopen
the record and address some of the concerns that he raised," U.S.
Attorney Patrick Meehan said. "This will enable us to move forward
with this prosecution."

The rulings stem from a death-penalty murder case slated to begin
Monday. Prosecutors have accused three men — Carlos Ivan
Llera-Plaza, 32, Wilfredo Martinez Acosta, 23, and Victor Rodriguez,
34 — of operating a multimillion-dollar Philadelphia drug ring linked to
four murders.

If convicted, the defendants would be the first in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to face the federal
death penalty since it was brought back in 1988.

Click on the below links for related articles

GOVERNMENT'S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION OF THE COURT'S EXCLUSION OF FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION EVIDENCE AND FOR PERMISSION TO PRESENT LIMITED ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE 

MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF GOVERNMENT'S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION OF THE COURT'S EXCLUSION OF FINGERPRINT OPINION TESTIMONY