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Article: GRANDFATHERING EVIDENCE: FINGERPRINT ADMISSIBILITY RULINGS FROM JENNINGS TO LLERA PLAZA AND BACK AGAIN
- Article from:
- American Criminal Law Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Georgetown University Law Center Summer 2004. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ABSTRACT
This Article treats post-Daubert rulings on the admissibility of forensic fingerprint identification as a "demanding test" of the courts' ability to apply Daubert consistently and coherently. The article begins with a discussion of early admissibility decisions in the United State
s, beginning with People v. Jennings (1911). It shows that courts did not demand, and fingerprint experts did not provide, evidence of the reliability of forensic fingerprint identification. It argues that courts were seduced by the "fingerprint examiner's fallacy," in which the uniqueness of all hu
man fingerprints is taken as evidence of the accuracy with which human fingerprint examiners could attribute ...