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NEW FINGERPRINT TECHNOLOGY

By "Captain Liberty" and "Rumpole"

The NY Times reports (the title links to the article) on an article in the Journal Of Science in which mass spectrometry can now identify what a fingerprint was touching prior to leaving the print.  The article details controlled experiments in which latents were left with cocaine, the explosive RDX and other chemicals. The lab was able to identify the chemical on the finger that left the print. The application to criminal law is obvious. And it occurs to us that the advent of new technologies which ostensibly would seem to benefit law enforcement and prosecution has been embraced and used by the criminal defense bar. Just how many hundreds of people have been exonerated by DNA? And that always leads us back to the point of how many people are languishing in prison who were not fortunate enough to have DNA evidence preserved in their case? Meanwhile,  Osama Bin Laden's driver has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by Justice Building Blog on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).