Partial fingerprint?

[UnkownJustice]

What is the name of your state: Texas, Austin

A buddy of mine, whom I know did not do the crime (we were in Louisiana), is in court for Burglary To A Habitation (Residential Burglary) due to the fact that they have a description (vague at best) and 1 partial fingerprint in the house.

Now, he lives a few blocks away and always walks his dogs towards where the crime took place and he does fit the description (almost).

My question is how valid id a "partial" finger print in court? They took 6-8 other prints and none, not a single one, matched his prints.

Any feedback/info/advice is greatly appreciated.

Can the prints be re-tested?

Thanks!

 

[CavemanLawyer]

Fingerprint analysis looks at what are called points of comparison and also utilizes certain singular points, called core and delta, which are basically like baselines in our prints. The singular points are basically the best starting point of the print, and then other points of comparison can be measured relative to these.

A partial print generally just refers to a print that doesn't show the entire finger. The problem with this is twofold. First you end up with less overall points of comparison. More importantly you may not have either the core or delta points in the print, meaning that you need more non-singular points of comparison for a match.

Scientifically, a partial print is just as valid as a complete print so long as you've got enough points of comparison to confirm a match. A partial print can actually be better than a complete print if points of comparison come out better. The answer is that it really just depends on the quality of that partial print. The fact that they don't have as much to work with is definitely something that can be argued at trial.