Professor Imwinkelried Discusses Reliability of Fingerprint Analysis
In an August 18, 2008, article for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Professor Edward J. Imwinkelried commented on the role of fingerprint analysis introduced in court. The article noted that many people, including a large number of jurors, believe that fingerprint analyses are 100 percent accurate, when in fact there is disagreement between fingerprint examiners as to what constitutes a perfect match. Imwinkelried observed that, in the future, there is a good possibility judges will move in the direction of instructing juries to take fingerprint analyses as expert opinions rather than exact conclusions.
Imwinkelried, a professor of law at UC Davis, is a world-renowned evidence expert and has published extensively in the field. During the past five years, he has written a series of articles dealing with fingerprint evidence, several of which have been coauthored with Mr. Michael Cherry, one of the nation's leading experts on image processing.