In many television dramas and films, a defendant is identified and then convicted of a crime shortly after a detective discovers their fingerprints at a crime scene. In the real world of Colorado law, fingerprints are often not enough on their own to result in a conviction. Instead, fingerprint evidence is usually presented as one specific piece of information rather than the only evidence held against a defendant.
When investigators find fingerprints at a crime scene in Montrose or elsewhere in the state, they use them to identify potential suspects or persons of interest. However, because these marks have limitations, police and prosecutors will usually look for additional types of evidence to secure a guilty verdict.
If an officer finds your fingerprints, they will certainly connect you to the scene of the crime. However, there is no way for the police to determine exactly how long your fingerprints have been there before the discovery. Interpreting these patterns to find a match may also result in a mistaken identification that puts an innocent person at risk. While fingerprints might not have the same evidentiary strength as DNA evidence, they are still used in many criminal cases. Fingerprints are generally considered to be reliable by the public, and juries typically believe they understand what the marks mean. Every person has a series of ridges on their fingers that are unique to them and no one else.
The Process of Matching a Suspect to Prints
Two main principles guide how prosecutors in Colorado handle fingerprint evidence during a trial. The first principle is that the friction ridge patterns on your fingertips will not change during your entire life. The second principle is that every person has a unique pattern of friction ridges, and this even includes identical twins who share the same DNA.
Police officers use fingerprints to identify suspects by comparing the prints they have in files with those that are found at the scene of a crime. The FBI maintains a searchable database that law enforcement officers in Montrose can use to try to match unknown fingerprints to those contained in the national system. Your fingerprints might be on file for many different reasons. For example, you might have been fingerprinted to gain security clearance for a new job or to obtain a professional license in Colorado. You are also fingerprinted when you are placed under arrest for any offense.
Many parents choose to have their children fingerprinted by local police departments so they can be identified if they ever become victims of crimes. No matter how your prints were originally taken, once they are entered into the database, they can be used for comparison purposes in future investigations. Fingerprint experts sometimes disagree about the number of points that are required before a match can be officially declared. Some experts believe that a match has been found based on 12 points while others require 20 points to declare a match with any certainty.
How Prints Are Recovered from a Crime Scene
The friction ridges of your fingertips have numerous sweat pores that constantly produce a mix of moisture, dirt, and oil. These substances can leave behind an impression of the friction ridges on the smooth surfaces that you touch throughout the day. Police officers use special chemical powders to make these oily fingerprints visible to the naked eye.
After dusting different surfaces at a Colorado crime scene, the visibility of any prints will depend heavily on the porosity of the surface involved. However, modern computer enhancements allow detectives to extrapolate complete fingerprints from small fragments, and lasers can now read markings that would otherwise be invisible to traditional methods.
It is still not possible to determine the exact age of fingerprints found in the field. In many cases, a criminal defendant will explain that their fingerprints might be at the crime scene because of a visit that happened much earlier than when the crime occurred. Fingerprints are used to connect a suspect with a crime scene based on the theory that no two individuals have the same patterns, yet it is possible that different points on your fingertips might match the prints of someone else. While your entire fingerprint might not be exactly the same, enough points might match to result in the police connecting you to a crime even if you were never present at the time of the offense.
Unique Characteristics of Fingerprint Evidence
When police rely on fingerprints to find a suspect, they pay the most attention to the ridges and specific patterns. Regardless of how old you become, these areas of your fingerprints will remain the same throughout your life. Fingerprint software might also identify more than one set of prints that include similar details, although these patterns will not be an exact match between two different people.
Most complications arise when partial matches are found with incomplete marks instead of entire prints. When this happens, a partial print will not offer much help to the case brought by the prosecutor. Instead, the prosecutor will likely need much more conclusive evidence to present to a jury in a Colorado courtroom. Law enforcement agencies are able to access federal databases to try to match fingerprints and identify suspects or crime victims, which increases the likelihood that some older crimes will eventually be solved.
What Limits the Use of Fingerprint Evidence?
In many cases, fingerprints found at crime scenes will not be matched to any known prints in a database. This means that the suspect might not be identified through their fingerprints at all. Fingerprints might also result in someone being charged with a crime who is not the actual culprit. For example, someone who lives in a home where a crime occurs will likely leave fingerprints throughout the residence even if they had nothing to do with what happened.
Many perpetrators wear gloves when they commit crimes to prevent any fingerprints from being left behind, or they might clean the scene to avoid leaving this type of physical evidence. In these cases, fingerprints will not lead to a conviction. Another limitation is that fingerprints do not show any indications of their age, which makes it hard to prove when the person was actually there. If you happened to be in a room years ago, your prints might be found much later when a crime in the same room is investigated.
Having the help of a seasoned trial attorney can help you challenge any fingerprinting evidence used against you. Brent Martin has over 20 years of experience fighting for clients in Colorado courts and understands how to question the validity of these matches. Your attorney might try to determine when you could have left the prints, or if you were never there, he might hire a fingerprint expert to demonstrate that the match provided by the state is inaccurate.
Seek Legal Help With Brent Martin
While television shows might make you believe that all is lost when your fingerprints have been found at a crime scene, that is not always the case. If you have been charged with a crime based on your fingerprints, you should talk to the team at The Martin Law Firm as soon as possible. Brent Martin has represented thousands of clients in serious criminal cases since 2001 and knows how to build a strong defense.
Your attorney can carefully analyze all of the facts and circumstances of your case to identify the available defenses. We are located in Montrose, CO, and are ready to help you through this difficult time. You can reach us at (970) 730-4354 to discuss your situation and learn about your rights under Colorado law.