Today, fingerprints are routinely used in police investigations.
Fingerprinting is one of the oldest scientific practices used for police investigations, and the oldest still allowed in courts today. However, as DNA technology continues to uncover cases of wrongful convictions, fingerprinting has come under scrutiny. Not only has the accuracy of fingerprinting been questioned, but well publicized mistakes have brought skepticism as to the ability of examiners to detect mistakes when they occur.
The Farrow Case
Although fingerprints were used well before the start of the 20th century, particularly as a form of signature, the 1905 murder case of Thomas and Ann Farrow of South London was the first time that fingerprints were used to convict a high-profile murderer, according to history.com. A fingerprint on a cash box was the only piece of evidence in that case.
Thomas Jennings
In 1910, Thomas Jennings was the first person to be convicted for murder based on fingerprint evidence in the United States, according to classjump.com, a teaching resource. The case was appealed all the way up to the Illinois Supreme Court, where the conviction was upheld. Although this case was a precursor to the widespread use of fingerprint evidence in criminal cases, the appeals process did not involve the kind of scrutiny that it would today.
In the past decade, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals set the federal evidentiary standard for scientific expert testimony, and Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael extended this standard to cover all experts. Courts have begun requiring a much more stringent standard for the acceptability of evidence in courts, focusing on ability to falsify results, error rates, control standards and general acceptance by the scientific community.
The Mona Lisa
Around the time fingerprint evidence became popular, crime-scene investigators were experimenting with dozens of techniques for identifying suspects. Among the leaders of this research was Alphonse Bertillon, a French police officer who had claimed to have developed an identification system based on an anthropometric analysis of individual's physical characteristics. When the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, Bertillon was asked to use fingerprints as part of his analysis. While he agreed, he did not take the prints of suspects' left hands and failed to identify the thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, despite having taken prints from his right hand.
Brandon Mayfield
Modern technology hasn't made the possibility of an incorrect fingerprint identification improbable. Brandon Mayfield, an American man incorrectly thought to have been involved in the 2004 Madrid Train Bombings that killed 191 people, is proof of that. According to court records, Mayfield was one of 20 people the FBI thought could have left behind a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators. After using the Patriot Act to conduct a secret investigation of Mayfield, the FBI arrested him over the opposition of Spanish authorities. Eventually, Spain publicly announced that the prints belonged to Ouhnane Daoud. Mayfield was released from prison and received a large settlement from the U.S. government.
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