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Judge Pollak
Reverses Himself
The
Honorable Louis H. Pollak wrote:
Based on the
foregoing considerations, I have
concluded that arrangements which,
subject to careful trial court
oversight, are felt to be
sufficiently reliable in England,
ought likewise to be found
sufficiently reliable in the federal
courts of the United States, subject
to similar measures of trial court
oversight. In short, I have changed
my mind. "Wisdom too often never
comes, and so" - as Justice
Frankfurter admonished himself and
every judge - "one ought not to
reject it merely because it comes
late." (7
January 2002 Court Decision
partially against fingerprints
Court Decision
)
PA v. Vikara,
Convicted After Starrs' Testimony
Prof. James Starrs was
called as an expert in the methodology
of fingerprint comparison, but
renounced much of his written report
during cross-examination.
Hearing was October 22, 2001...
Defendant convicted of 1st Degree
Murder and Robbery... sentenced to
death. Defendant died January 10, 2002
in the State Correctional Institute at
Camp Hill, PA.
A Judge Takes a
Close look at Simon Cole
A New York state judge
listened to testimony by Simon Cole
about why he considers the science of
fingerprint identification suspect...
and ruled, ..."Even applying the
Federal Court's Daubert Standard, what
Dr. Cole has offered here is 'junk
science"...
( Court Decision )
( Cole's Testimony
)
One of Bin
Laden's Terrorists Tried a
Daubert Challenge to FP's
- After
his April 6, 2001 conviction, Ahmed
Ressam was known to most of us as
just another criminal who failed in
his bid to exclude incriminating
fingerprint evidence. As Paul Harvey
would say, we now know the rest of
the story...
Discussion Forum
at OnIn
Read what your peers are
asking and answering...
ANSI/NIST:
Click HERE
to read
ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000. It covers the
" Data Format for the
Interchange of Fingerprint,
Facial, & Scar, Mark &
Tattoo (SMT) Information
" and is the revision of ANSI/NIST-
CSL 1-1993 & ANSI/NIST- ITL
1a-1997.
And
YES , it does cite the
new 1000 ppi higher resolution
friction ridge file types... and the
1K, 2K, etc., migration path for
higher resolution. Congratulations to
Mike McCabe, the IAI, SWGFAST and
other organizations and individuals
responsible for helping craft
improved national standards!
Equipment and
Supplies
Find your goodies online...
FBI Forensic
Science Communications
Forensic Science
Communications is a forensic science
journal published quarterly in by FBI
Laboratory personnel. It is a means of
communication between forensic
scientists.
FBI LP Processing
Guide
Right-click
the above link to download the Year
2000 FBI Latent Print
Processing Guide. This
document is 344
KB and will work best if you
download it to your computer
(especially if you are using a
telephone modem).
Many thanks to Tim
Trozzi, Rebecca Schwartz, and Mitch
Hollars of the FBI
Lab for updating the manual,
and to the FBI
for making
the Year 2000 version public.
Fingerpint
Consultants
Experts with an online
presence...
INS
Fingerprinting $$$
Anticipated to cost up
to $500 million, Senate Bill 1491
introduced on 3 OCT 01 will hopefully
sail thru Congress quickly in this
time of need for fingerprint screening
in America.
INTERPOL AFIS
Expert Group
The IAEG is currently
composed of representatives from eight
member countries: Brazil, Canada,
France, Germany, Norway, Spain, United
Kingdom, and the United States,
representatives from Interpol and an
observer from Europol. It is the
charter of the IAEG to develop and
propose for adoption...
Help Wanted...
LP Examiner Jobs
Looking for a change?
Ready to retire and start
anew?...
The Future of
the LP Discipline
Slides from the
July 2001 IAI
Conference
Level 1, 2 and 3
Detail
Level 1 includes the
general ridge flow and pattern
configuration. Level 1 detail is
not sufficient for individualization,
but can be used for exclusion.
Level 1 detail may include information
enabling orientation, core and delta
location, and distinction of finger
versus palm. Level 2...
Prints on Skin
Because the same
chemicals naturally deposited in
latent prints are also present on the
rest of the body's skin, successful
latent print detection on skin
normally involves a contaminant of
some type (blood, dirt, lipstick, wet
paint, vaseline, etc.). I
recommend detectives look carefully at
the victim's skin for any obvious
"finger or palm ridge detail" (not
just red marks on the skin).
Success may come in the form of
...
Problem Idents
There is zero tolerance
for friction ridge identification
error in forensic science.
Ignoring standards causes
errors. A minimum number of
Galton detail "points" does NOT equal
an identification standard. The
standard for identification is not a
number. As demonstrated below...
Ruthenium Tetroxide
Used
more in Japan than the US, here's
another tool to be aware of...
LP Examination
Safety - OSHA Report
In February 1992, the
National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a
request for a health hazard evaluation
(HHE) from a management representative
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) in Washington, D.C. The request
was submitted because of concern
about...
Those interested in
furthering their knowledge will want to
read David Ashbaugh's new
book . Visit your
library, borrow a friend's or buy
one.
Sample
Expert Testimony (decades old,
but still interresting)
(Testimony
about Lee Harvey Oswald) My full name is
Sebastian Francis Latona. I am the
supervisor of the latent fingerprint
section of the identification division
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
I attended Columbia University School of
Law, where I received degrees of LL.B.
LL.M., M.P.L. I have been with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation for a
little more than 32 years. I started in
the identification division as a student
fingerprint classifier, and since that
time I have worked...
SCAFO
This non-profit
organization was founded in 1937 with
forty charter members dedicated to the
profession of fingerprint
identification. This Southern
California based association is
comprised of more than 300 members
from over 50 different law enforcement
agencies...
Shirley
McKie.com
Website devoted to the victim of the
Scottish Criminal Record Office's
fingerprint identification error.
Super Glue
Fuming
Cyanoacrylate
(Superglue) Fuming Tips - Lessons
Learned - Caution otes - Safety
Background Information - Discovery
Timeline...
SWGFAST - Peer
Reviewed National Standards
In 1995, the United
States Federal Bureau of
Investigation, hosted a group of
latent print examiners at the FBI
academy to discuss developing
consensus standards which would
preserve and improve the quality of
service provided by the latent print
community....
Upcoming
Training
Read about upcoming
training opportunities or post new
information for the rest of
us...
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