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Daubert Hearing 13 September 1999 The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced today that the Honorable J. Curtis Joyner of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, today upheld the admissibility of fingerprint evidence and rejected a challenge by the defense attorney to exclude that evidence in the case of United States v. Byron C. Mitchell, Criminal No. 96--00407. Judge Joyner ruled that the government can present expert testimony as to the fingerprint identification made of latent thumb prints found on the outside door handle and on the gear shift knob of the getaway car used in an armored truck robbery. In particular, the Court found that fingerprint evidence is admissible under Rule 702 of the Rules of Evidence and the Supreme Court's decisions in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) and Kumho Tire Company, Ltd. v. Patrick Carmichael, 119 S. Ct. 1167 (1999). The Court also agreed to take judicial notice in the case that : 1) Human Friction Ridges are Unique and Permanent throughout the area of the friction ridge skin including small friction ridge areas, and 2) Human Friction Ridge Skin Arrangements are Unique and Permanent. The Court granted the government's request to exclude the testimony of the defendant's experts James E. Starrs, a Professor at George Washington University Law School, David A. Stoney, Ph.D. of the McCrone Research Institute, Chicago, and Simon A. Cole, Ph.D. Those witnesses testified that fingerprint evidence and comparisons are not scientific evidence under Daubert.
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Contact: 215/861--8599 [Editor--—The various motions presented with this case make outstanding study material. Download or review them online from Ed German's fingerprint website at www.onin.com. A link is also available from the SCAFO site.]
This article was printed in “THE PRINT” |