ANNAPOLIS – Forensic experts and Maryland prosecutors are urging lawmakers to reject a bill that would expand the types of evidence admissible in capital murder cases to include fingerprints and photographs.
“It is not a scientific question, it is a political decision that you need to make,” said Itiel Dror, an international consultant on forensic analysis. “I am here to give you the scientific fact so you do not base it on Hollywood CSI.”
Dror said fingerprint matching is “subjective and in the eye of the beholder. It is not scientific.”
Sen. Norman R. Stone, D-Baltimore County, is sponsoring the bill, which would expand permissible evidence under the state’s death penalty.
The bill rebuffs the legislature’s highly publicized vote last year to limit evidence in capital cases to “biological” or DNA samples, a video recording of the suspect committing the crime, or a recording of the suspect’s voluntary confession.
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Stone told the Judicial Proceedings Committee during a hearing that fingerprint evidence is “infallible” and “no less reliable than DNA evidence.”
“Fingerprint evidence has been acceptable and reliable for 100 years, and the track record is nearly impeccable,” he said.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger backed up Stone’s claim.
“If DNA evidence linking a defendant to a murder is a sufficient basis for seeking the death penalty, then why can’t fingerprint evidence that links a defendant to the crime also be sufficient?” Shellenberger asked.
But Dror cited studies in which forensic examiners have matched a pair of fingerprints, but when given that same pair of fingerprints hours later, claim not to find a match.
Stephen Mercer, a criminal appeals lawyer from Rockville, said he would never prosecute a capital case on a single fingerprint.
But it’s been done before, said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Bethesda. Raskin cited a case in which Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield was wrongfully linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings after three FBI officials matched his fingerprints to evidence from the scene of the crime.
But it’s been done before, said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Bethesda. Raskin cited a case in which Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield was wrongfully linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings after three FBI officials matched his fingerprints to evidence from the scene of the crime.
The real bomber was identified months later.
Gov. Martin O’Malley asked the legislature to repeal Maryland’s death penalty last year, but lawmakers voted down the effort in favor of tightening evidence restrictions. The changes make the death penalty more difficult to prosecute in Maryland than in any of the 35 other states that have capital punishment, according to Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler.
