Judge opens fingerprints to court scrutiny

BALTIMORE, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A ruling by a Baltimore judge barring fingerprint evidence from a trial could lead to challenges from the defense in other cases.

The murder trial of one Bryan Rose was postponed after Baltimore County Circuit Judge Susan Souder agreed with the defense contention that prints from two different fingers may have mistakenly been considered a match by investigators.

Souder’s ruling, which cannot be appealed, held that fingerprints need not be automatically accepted as evidence without question.

The Baltimore Sun said Wednesday the ruling stunned prosecutors and many legal experts. Others, however, contended the ruling marks a needed review of forensics such as fingerprints that haven’t been challenged in decades.

"These issues will not go away," said Patrick Kent, chief of the Maryland public defender’s forensic division. "We will litigate these issues, because there are too many 'forensic sciences' that have never been scrutinized and that lack a sufficient scientific basis."