Proof of Finger-Prints
Albert S. Osborn · Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1931-1951) · 1935
More and more the finger-print is the criminal's greatest terror.It is a fortunate provision of nature that in his own hands the criminal thus carries the means of his own identification.If he has before been arrested and convicted, and his finger-prints are on file, the unchangeable ten rubber-stamps carried by him infallibly give him his true name and lead to a knowledge of the embarrassing incidents of his history.There are now filed away in many cities millions of these tell-tale impressions and every day new ones are added.With prints on file and a suspected person arrested, from whose hands new prints can be made, an identification follows with absolute certainty if it was from his hands that the filed prints were made.With complete prints of the two hands proof of identity is incontrovertible, but, unfortunately, proof sometimes must be made from only one print, and that print may not be clear and complete.Under this condition proof may fail or serious error may arise.Every helpful provision should be made, of course, so that the fact is proved, whatever the fact may be.Error in proof, as well as failure of proof, may arise from incomplete data or unscientific methods.The usual method of marking photographic illustrations of fingerprint impressions for use in court is to draw freehand or ruled lines tAuthor of Questioned Documents (First edition, 1910; Second* edition, 1929), and The Problem of Proof (1922).