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Article: Fingerprint evidence.
- Article from:
- Science News for Kids
- Article date:
- May 3, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In May 2004, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up at Brandon Mayfield's law office and arrested him in connection with the March 2004 bombing of a train station in Madrid, Spain. The Oregon lawyer was a suspect because several experts had matched one of his fingerprints to a print found near the scene of the terrorist attack.
But Mayfield was innocent. When the truth emerged 2 weeks later, he was released from jail. Still, Mayfield had suffered unnecessarily, and he's not alone.
Police officers often use fingerprints successfully to nab criminals. However, according to a recent study by criminologist Simon Cole of the University of ...