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Article: The fall-out: suspicion, experts at war and a question mark over thousands of convictions all over the world . . . PART TWO PART TWO The very basis of fingerprint evidence - that it is reliant on facts, not on opinion - is being challenged worldwide in the wake of the Shirley McKie case
- Article from:
- The Sunday Herald
- Article date:
- February 19, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2006 The Sunday Herald. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IN the international fingerprint community they call it the
"Scotch Botch" or the "Highland Hiccup". But although the monikers
may sound humorous and harmless enough, what they refer to, according
to experts, is the case that presents the "biggest challenge to the
integrity of fingerprint science in its 100-year history".
From its roots as an innocuous elimination fingerprint in a 1997
murder investigation in Kilmarnock, the disputed "Shirley McKie"
print - Y7 - has gone on to challenge the very basis of fingerprint
evidence worldwide.
In the face of numerous reports into the McKie identification and
almost 200 experts worldwide who have put their names to the view
that the print does not ...