False Positive Fingerprint-Identification Process

The Mayfield case is a textbook example of “false positive” fingerprint identification, in which an innocent person is singled out erroneously. But the case is hardly unique. Psychologist Erin Morris, who works with the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office, has compiled a list of 25 false positives, going back several decades, that are now being used to challenge fingerprint evidence in US courts. Those challenges, in turn, are being fed by a growing unease among fingerprint examiners and researchers alike. They are beginning to recognize that the century-old fingerprint-identification process rests on assumptions that have never been tested empirically, and that the process does little to safeguard against unconscious biases of the