Fingerprints
Fingerprints can have several different applications in
litigation. The first is showing a person was in a particular place, such
as a crime scene. Other evidential values which are often overlooked are
fingerprints on anonymous notes or other documents where someone denies
a connection to or authorship of a particular document. We have the ability
to develop fingerprints which have been on paper for up to several years.
The theory for the use of fingerprints and palmprints as a positive means
of identification is based on two principles:
* 1) They are "permanent" in that they are formed in the fetal stage,
prior to birth, and remain the same throughout lifetime, barring disfiguration
by scarring, until sometime after death when decomposition sets in.
* 2) They are "unique" in that no two fingerprints, or friction ridge
area, made by different fingers or areas, are the same (or are identical
in their ridge characteristic arrangement).
The display below points out some of the parts of a fingerprint and the
characteristics used to identify them (ridge ending, bifurcation, enclosure,
short ridge and ridge dot).
Court Appointed
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Legend
| 1) Ridge Ending | 5) Ridge dot |
| 2) Bifurcation | 6) Core |
| 3) Enclosure or Island | 7) Delta |
| 4) Flexure crease | 8) Short Ridge |
Presentation Exhibit
A comparison is made by searching the inked (known) fingerprint and
the latent (unknown) fingerprint for corresponding ridge characteristics.
These ridge characteristics have to be of the same shape, the same type,
occupy the same relative position and possess an adequate number of identification
points with no unexplainable differences in both the inked print and the
latent print before a positive identification can be made.
Latent Fingerprint
