Fingerprints

From the Observer:

The credibility of Scotland's criminal justice system was in tatters last night after the country's most senior law officer effectively dismissed fingerprint evidence as junk science.

Colin Boyd QC, the Lord Advocate, took the unprecedented step of explaining his decisions in the case of former police officer Shirley McKie, who was wrongly accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene in 1997. His intervention, rather than defusing the issue, led to repeated calls for an independent public inquiry.

On Friday, the Lord Advocate said 'there have always been, and there remain, conflicting expert views on the issue of identification of the relevant fingerprints'. He had concluded in 2001, after Tayside Police reported, 'that the conflict in expert evidence was such that there could be no question of criminal proceedings'.

Allan Bayle, a UK fingerprinting expert, said the disputed dab had been analysed by more than 170 experts in 18 countries. 'Every single person said there is no question, it was not Shirley McKie's.... Fingerprinting is now finished in Scotland.'

ID cards will have fingerprints on them, which is another reason they’re a complete waste of time.