Professor Imwinkelried joins challenge of fingerprint evidence standards in N. Carolina

For decades, American courts have allowed fingerprint examiners to identify a defendant as the source of a finger mark to the exclusion of every other person alive. However, some reports - a 2009 report by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, a 2012 report by a National Institute of Standards and Technology expert group, and the 2016 report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology - have challenged the validity of those claims.

Professor Ed Imwinkelried was a member of the 2012 expert group. He recently joined as a signatory to the amicus brief in State v. McPhaul, a case currently pending before the North Carolina Supreme Court. The amici include forensic scientists as well as evidence scholars.

Citing the reports and marshaling relevant empirical studies, the amici urge the court to become the first to forbid categorical source attributions by fingerprint examiners as scientifically indefensible. One of the other signatories is Imwinkelried's Scientific Evidence co-author, Professor Paul Giannelli.

Professor Imwinkelried is a world-renowned evidence expert who has published extensively in the field.