Judge Bars Fingerprint Evidence in Murder Trial

(Baltimore, Maryland) Well, here's a case where someone has decided to throw sand into the gearbox. With a couple of botched cases as her bases, Judge Susan M. Souder has barred fingerprint evidence from being used to convict a suspect in the murder of Warren T. Fleming.

A Baltimore County judge has ruled that fingerprint evidence, a mainstay of forensics for nearly a century, is not reliable enough to be used against a homicide defendant facing a possible death sentence - a finding that national experts described yesterday as unprecedented and potentially far-reaching.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Susan M. Souder's order bars prosecutors from using at trial the partial fingerprints lifted from the Mercedes of a Security Square Mall merchant who was fatally shot last year during an attempted carjacking at the shopping center. Prosecutors say the fingerprints - as well as those found in a stolen Dodge Intrepid in which witnesses said the shooter fled the mall parking lot - link a 23-year-old Baltimore man to the killing.

In her ruling, Souder outlined the long history of fingerprinting as a crime-solving tool but says that such history "does not by itself support the decision to admit it." In explaining her reasoning in a 32-page decision, the judge leaned heavily on the case of an Oregon lawyer mistakenly linked through fingerprint analysis to the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Granted, there have been mistakes. Hopefully, incidents are proven to be extremely rare. Generally, Judge Souder is known to be critical of fingerprinting methods and testing of examiners. She explains her decision to disallow the fingerprints in a 32-page ruling.