The Case Of Brian Keith Rose Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Case Of Brian Keith Rose - Term Paper Example Rose was initially charged in State court in Baltimore County though evidence in the form of a partial fingerprint was thrown out by a Baltimore County Judge. The United States Attorney took over the case after Judge Souder’s October 2007 ruling. Souder’s ruling was based on the fact that technique used to analyze the fingerprints was not scientifically reliable. State charges against Rose were then dropped and the case was re-filed in the US District Court (Brendan, 2010).MD Rule 5-702 requires that latent fingerprint identification methods rest on reliable factual foundations and in this case the ACE-V method used was not proved to be reliable and factual in State Court. Initially no latent fingerprints were identified by the crime lab and homicide Detectives suggested several names of suspects to the crime lab. At that time these names, including Brian Rose, were compared to the latent print recovered. Both sides in this case requested that the Court determine the re liability of the ACE-V methodology, hence allowing or disallowing the latent prints as evidence. The defendants contended that the ACE-V is not a method which has been scientifically tested, thus the error rate is unknown. Without an error rate it is impossible to know the reliability of this methodology. A fingerprint is in essence a reproduction of friction ridge formations of the surface of a finger, left by the transfer of oil or other matter between the finger and the object. These ridges form before birth.