The Week In Fingerprints

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In the age of high-tech crime fighting, is there still a place for old-fashioned fingerprints? Israeli investigators would certainly answer yes. A new chemical for tracing fingerprints, developed jointly by U.S. and Israeli scientists, gave investigators their first break in the hunt for the Palestinian gunmen who killed a government minister in a Jerusalem hotel last October. Imdamediome, a yellow powder that is dissolved in liquid, reacts with the amino acids in sweat left by the touch of a finger but invisible to the naked eye. Investigators used the chemical to analyze a newspaper found in the hotel room reportedly occupied by the assassins of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Conventional methods probably would not have worked, say Israeli print experts, but the new chemical helped investigators track down two accomplices in the killing. (The actual killers are believed to be still hiding in the Palestinian territories.)

Back in the U.S., police and prosecutors suffered a rude jolt from a court ruling that threw doubt on the validity of even the most sophisticated fingerprint analysis. Various defense lawyers had attempted for three years to get fingerprint analysis held to a rigorous standard for expert testimony set by a 1993 Supreme Court decision. Print-matching standards vary widely, the lawyers argued, and have never been scientifically proved. A Philadelphia judge finally agreed, and his ruling, while not binding in other jurisdictions, is expected to make it more difficult to use fingerprint evidence to prove guilt in court. And it may call into question other types of forensic testimony, like handwriting analysis and ballistics.

--By Rebecca Winters. Reported by Wendy Cole/Chicago and Matt Rees/Jerusalem