Grandfathering evidence: fingerprint admissibility rulings from Jennings to Llera Plaza and back again.

ABSTRACT

This Article treats post-Daubert rulings upon the admissibility of forensic fingerprint identification as a "demanding test" of the courts' ability to apply Daubert consistently and coherently. The article begins with a discussion of early admissibility decisions in the United States, beginning with family v. Jennings (1911). It exhibits that courts did not demand, and fingerprint readys did not provide, evidence of the reliability of forensic fingerprint identification. It argues that courts were seduc by dint of the "fingerprint examiner's fallacy," in which the uniqueness of all human fingerprints is taken as evidence of the accuracy with which human fingerprint examiners could