Thursday, 08-25-05

[Guest]

I am scheduled to testify in state court Thursday in an evidentiary hearing on the admissibility of fingerprints (Daubert hearing) in San Diego. If you live in Southern California and would like to take a day to come watch Dr. Simon Cole testify why fingerprints should be barred from evidence and hear me defend the admissibility of fingerprints, watch this site and I will post the times and location of the court on Tuesday or Wednesday as a reply to this posting. ---- Pat A. Wertheim

[Pat A. Wertheim]

The San Diego, CA, evidentiary hearing with testimony by Dr. Simon Cole for the defense and myself for the prosecution will be in the Vista Courthouse, North County, Room 25, starting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, August 25. Hope to see you there! -- Pat A. Wertheim

[MGaines]

Any hope of transcripts being made available on this site? I won't be able to see the testimony in person, but Simon's testimony is always "fun" reading.

[Pat Wertheim]

I doubt there will be video or transcript of this hearing. However, I will be debating Dr. Simon Cole live in a formal debate moderated by a college forensic science staff in Vermont the first week of November. That should be an excellent conference all the way around, but for those unable to attend, videotapes (maybe DVD's?) of that debate will be available following the conference. There have been a couple of posts on this discussion board with information and website address for that conference. Scan back to anything about "debate."

[Pat A. Wertheim]

The evidentiary hearing in San Diego went very well for the prosecution. California is not a Daubert state, but with a death penalty case likely to go to the 9th Circuit Court on appeal, the fear was that if the hearing weren't held, the conviction and penalty may eventually be overturned. The motion was a straight Daubert motion disguised as Kelly-Frye. The defense, having filed the motion, presented their case first with Dr. Simon Cole as their witness. In all frankness, Dr. Cole's testimony did more to help the prosecution defeat the motion. He testified that friction ridge skin is permanent and unique and, in opposition to the defense motion, testified that there is no difference between friction ridge skin on fingers, palms, soles, and toes. His argument could be summed up as saying that since we have no controlled laboratory studies showing what the error rate is, fingerprint identifications should be kept out of court. I took the stand after he stepped down and testified that although human error is a factor and errors do occur, the methodology is reliable. After a combined six hours of testimony, about 3 by Dr. Cole and 3 by me, the judge took a five minute break and came back with his ruling. The fingerprint witnesses would be allowed to testify as normal in the trial itself, without restricting their conclusions, and the defense will be allowed to cross examine them as normal, raising the concerns expressed in the hearing itself. So basically, the judge ruled that the fingerprint evidence in the coming trial will be allowed just like it always has been. I hope to get a copy of the tape this week and write a longer article for the Detail in a week or two.
--- Pat A. Wertheim