AGGlfjmON
THE BATliTHE BATTALION
5
Monday, February 25, 2002
Reliability of fingerprint
evidence questioned
■ |BPHILADELPHIA (AP)
^ 1 '^HHicty-onc years after finger-
Ini evidence was first present-
Hin an American courtroom, its
. s-iYQ reputation as an infallible foren-
l it I C sic tool is under attack in a court
challenge that could change how
^Lj^jLcri' linal cases are tried.
(^(^MpHOn Monday, federal prosecu-
MSs will try to persuade U.S.
t " District Judge Louis H. Poliak
, getting oe;to reverse his recent decision
beginning ot ■• r i n g experts from testifying
aterial on whether a fingerprint
he's tnaterij Hen from a crime scene match-
if the show es i defendant. If the judge does
1 to multipk not change his mind, the deci-
sipn could change the way
nanagemeni forensic evidence is gathered
and ere,:*] presented in court.
>aid creatingWhile prosecutors and some
>f ihe mostrrforensic experts say Poliak’s
lege career ruling could have grave conse-
com, dew quinces, critics of fingerprint
scene, lea:, analysis say it’s about time the
ions. It ai prccess was reviewed,
ion groups rpl Thcre are a lot of emperors
out there testifying who have no
the ideaul clothes,” said David L. Faigman
ing. of University of California’s
r Hall ni) Hastings College of Law.
*ays heart:“Where’s the science behind it?
S'orthgate. W1 re’s the data?”
lat was jwfeplThe ruling, believed to be the
esult 1 m;s fist of its kind, involves a death
ands. fm penalty case in which three men
n. but I »o.:H charged w ith operating a
fexas mi.' mlltimilUon-dollar drug ring
ew days h am are linked to four killings,
only if r ■Lawy ers for Carlos Llera-
plarcd Pla/a, Wilfredo Acosta and
Victor Rodriguez asked the
Tiled wiiht! judge to bar fingerprint evi
dence. Under Poliak’s ruling,
experts can testify about and
show illustrations of similarities
or dissimilarities between
“latent” fingerprints from a
crime scene and “rolled” finger
prints on file, but they cannot
testify that crime scene prints
match a defendant’s fingerprints.
Citing a 1993 U.S. Supreme
Court decision requiring judges
to take a more active role in
There are a lot of
emperors out there
testifying who have
no clothes.
— David L. Faigman
University of California’s
Hastings College of Law
deciding what scientific evi
dence to admit, Poliak said that,
unlike DNA evidence, finger
print evidence has not been sci
entifically tested, its error rate
has not been calculated, and
there are no standards for what
constitutes a match.
Prosecutors declined to com
ment on the case, citing the
upcoming hearing, but said in
court documents that Poliak’s
opinion, if left to stand, “would
have grave consequences.”
“It would deprive the govern
ment of vital evidence in this
case, in which latent fingerprints
directly link defendants to
heinous murders,” court docu
ments stated. “If carried to its
logical conclusion, the court’s
reasoning would virtually elimi
nate any expert opinion on the
myriad subjects on which sub
jective expert opinion has
always been welcomed in the
federal courts.”
Since the first conviction in
the United States on fingerprint
evidence in 1911, the finger
print classification system used
in much of the world has
changed little.
A person’s fingerprint is
classified by its arches, loops
and whorls, then compared to
latent fingerprints by design
type and by locating certain
fixed points and counting the
ridges between the points.
“The courts have recognized
the validity and merit for finger
print identification for 100
years,” said Joseph P. Polski,
chief operations officer of the
International Association for
Identification. an industry
group. “If fingerprint identifica
tion was prohibited from being
admitted in court, it would have
far reaching effects in identify
ing bad guys.”
Although DNA evidence has
become a highly prized eviden
tiary tool, fingerprints can help
track down criminals in ways
DNA can't — in part because
hundreds of millions of finger
prints are on file, Polski said.
entralized
■ Texas man kills 3 children, self
S '
and ■THROCKMORTON. Texas (AP) — The
dConcerK estranged wife of a man who fatally shot their three
ike himsell children and then committed suicide in a car outside
anists sir her home said he had threatened to kill the family
target audi before.
IC bands in ! |H 4 l told him I wanted a divorce and that’s when
e the musi he pulled the gun,” Beth Smallwood, 33, said
Austin." Sufiday of her husband, James D. Smallwood Jr.
I spent c i ,;; |n an interview with The Associated Press, she
summerc said her husband was supposed to return their
duTlren — Corie, 10, Casey, 4, and Chase, 3 — to
ieptember ter home Sunday evening.
?gan withiWinstead, police said, he shot the three children
.•Mer the' is they sat in his car Saturday night, then drove to
iits a week lislestranged wife's house, which she shared with
b\ postiru lelparents, and shot himself,
irtists tontCRjeth Smallwood said she and her mother were
mlhe front porch when James Smallwood drove
is his onlyUtpIhe gravel driveway in his mother’s Cadillac,
'rent. BShe called 91 I when he began honking the horn,
> 30 hour'' ipparently trying to get her to walk out to the drive-
o through vay, said Clay Gober, Beth Smallwood’s brother,
he local v< ames Smallwood shot himself a short time later,
ily's and tH* Beth Smallwood said she had filed for divorce
cep me in n November but it had not been finalized.
| Alter months of hearings following their sep-
tair share Gralion, a judge granted her husband unsuper
vised visitation rights in January, a decision she
was critical of Sunday.
“I begged him for his help because I was worried
about the kids,” she said.
A telephone message left at Judge Rae Leifeste’s
home was not returned Sunday afternoon.
In Throckmorton, a town of 1,000 about 120
miles west of Dallas, residents said they were
shocked to hear of the killings.
Ron Sadler, a dispatcher with the
Throckmorton County sheriff’s department who
took the 91 1 call, said the killings were the first
for Throckmorton in the seven years he had
worked for the sheriff’s office.
At the First United Methodist Church that Beth
Smallwood’s family attends, congregants recalled
seeing her two daughters perform in a Christmas
show, dressed in long white robes with white
angel wings.
“The thing I remember is her clutching those
three precious children,” church member
Elizabeth London said.
Scott Hogue, principal of the Throckmorton
schools, described Corey, who was a fourth-grader,
as “a sweet little girl” who always had a smile on her
face. The other daughter would have been in kinder
garten next fall, he said.
is no except^
when Rogei;
d up on stall!
NEWS IN BRIEF
camera,” M-
VcirfS Figurines deater disappears
while police investigate fraud
known artSl WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A ceram-
is to net ptf IC figurines dealer has disappeared amid a police
lion on thef an< ^ E ^ investigation of whether he defrauded at
i on local M * eas f -*-00 eBay auction buyers,
sure too”Mci The customers say their purchases from a
December online auction were never delivered by
the seller, Stewart Richardson, 60, who disap-
I peared Jan. 17, police said.
Lladro’s, Hummel and Wee Forest Folk
ertones thaf ceramic figurines the customers bought were
worth tens of thousands of dollars total. No
>le at the '■ charges have been filed.
nary dinnei Richardson left his White Lake business — Retired
fter watchms Figurines Exchange — after reportedly withdrawing
a pre-dawn more tp, an $200,000, police said. His wife filed a
lo - . , missing persons report.
JV h •t E ^ ay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said Richardson
d with as" * la< ^ a Sood reputation at the auction service.
One killed and 10 injured at
Hellraiser Ball in New York
PLAINVIEW, N.Y. (AP) — Rival motorcycle gangs
armed with daggers, baseball bats and a machine
gun clashed at an indoor motorcycle and tattoo
expo called the Hellraiser Ball, authorities said. One
man was killed and at least 10 people were injured.
About 60 people were in custody Saturday night
and the number could grow, said Nassau County
Chief of Detectives Herbert Faust.
Faust said four people were shot, one fatally, and
others injured when the fight erupted around 4:15
p.m. at the Vanderbilt, a concert and catering hall
in Plainview, N.Y.
Faust said the fight broke out between members
of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, whose Long
Island chapter sponsored the event, and a rival
gang, the Pagans.
As many as 100 Pagans showed up at the event,
which drew about 1,000 people.
#
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Be A Part Of History
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Honoring the Class»iof *02
and Aggie Senior Andy Leatherman
Aggie A thletics.com
Dr. Malon Southerland '65
Vice President for Student Affairs
February 26, 2001
1 1:00 am - 1:00 pm
Blocker Foyer
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For more information log on to the Division of Student Affairs http://studentaffairs.tamu.edu
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