An FBI publication says, “Of all methods of identification, fingerprinting alone has proved to be both infallible and feasible.” This might come as a surprise to Brandon Mayfield and Shirley McKie, among others. The FBI incorrectly matched Mr. Mayfield’s fingerprint to one of a terrorist bomber of the Madrid subway. Scottish police incorrectly matched Ms. McKie’s fingerprint to one found at a crime scene. Errors usually originate from innate human limitations and predispositions in perceptual judgment, rather than from intentional deception or falsification. The mental processes causing the errors are normal and usually rational, but they are not infallible.
The highest profile case is the Mayfield fingerprint error. The FBI ran a partial print left by a Madrid subway bomber through AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a database of 40 million sets of fingerprints. One of the candidate matches was Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon attorney who had converted to Islam and defended Muslim suspects. A first FBI expert declared that Mayfield’s fingerprints matched the partial. A second and then third FBI expert verified the match. Next, an independent, defense fingerprint expert also verified the FBI’s match. However, the match proved to be an error when Spanish police subsequently identified the real bomber.
These mistakes lead to the argument that fingerprint Identification is not reliable as it depends too much on human verification.
RESEARCH this case and discuss. Why were these errors made? How could they have been prevented, if at all? How did the Spanish police identify the real bomber when the FBI couldn’t? What did the Spanish police do differently?
In no less than 300 words, discuss whether you believe that this is an accurate or inaccurate statement.