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Fingerprint mismatch led to false homicide accusation

Here's a remarkable story casting light both on a) the power of fingerprint evidence and b) its higher-than-expected error rate, from the Houston Chronicle ("Fingerprint error led to 4 months in jail," June 19):Authorities on Friday identified an ironworker with no criminal record as the suspect held in jail for four months in 1996 after the Houston Police Department's troubled fingerprint analysis unit wrongly tied his fingerprint to a homicide, records show.In July that year, two Houston fingerprint analysts identified Manuel Quinta Guerra's fingerprint on a bloody fork found at the scene of a slaying in southwest Houston. The next day he was arrested, booked into the Harris County Jail and held on $20,000 bail. Guerra wasn't released until December, when the FBI confirmed the print belonged to someone else, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which discussed the case Friday...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 19, 2010 (boomark / email).