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Reed v. Maryland9/6/1978
ection with a series of nighttime intrusions into the bedrooms of women. The porch railing at the home where the murder took place had been painted a short time previously. Investigators discovered the imprint on the railing of four fingers of someone's left hand. Four witnesses testified that in their opinion the prints on the railing and the prints taken from the fingers of Jennings by the identification bureau were made by the same person. As the court put it, Jennings "earnestly insisted . . . that this class of testimony is not admissible under the common law rules of evidence . . . ." After taking note of the widespread use of fingerprints by police, although noting, "No case in which this question has been raised has been cited in the briefs and we find no statutes or decisions touching the point in this country," the court applied the general rule "that whatever tends to prove any material fact is relevant and competent," stating:
"We are disposed to hold from the evidence of the four witnesses who testified and from the writings we have referred to on this subject, that there is a scientific basis for the system of finger-print identification and that the courts are justified in
admitting this class of evidence; that this method of identification is in such general and common use that the courts cannot refuse to take judicial cognizance of it. Such evidence may or may not be of independent strength, but it is admissible, the same as other proof, as tending to make out a case. If inferences as to the identity of persons based on the voice, the appearance or age are admissible, why does not this record justify the admission of this finger-print testimony under common law rules of evidence? The general rule is, that whatever tends to prove any material fact is relevant and competent." Id. at 549.
The process was next approved in State v. Cerciello, 86 N.J.L. 309, 90 A. 1112 (1914). The defendant there vigorously objected to introduction into evidence of his fingerprints for the purpose of comparing them with prints found upon the hatchet which was the murder weapon. The court said that this question "present a subject for judicial consideration, which while not entirely res nova in principle, is in its practical application in criminal procedure in [New Jersey at that time] essentially novel." Id. at 313. It then held:
"In principle its admission as legal evidence is based upon the theory that the evolution in practical affairs of life, whereby the progressive and scientific tendencies of the age are manifest in every other department of human endeavor, cannot be ignored in legal procedure, but that the law in its efforts to enforce justice by demonstrating a fact in issue, will allow evidence of those scientific processes, which are the work of educated and skillful men in their various departments and apply them to the demonstration of a fact, leaving the weight and effect to be given to the effort and its results entirely to the consideration of the jury. Steph. Dig. Ev. 267; 2 Best Ev. 514." Id. at 314.
The Court of Appeals of New York approved the admissibility of fingerprint evidence in People v. Roach, 215 N. Y. 592,
109 N. E. 618 (1915). The court said that it was "earnestly insisted that the admission in evidence of the testimony of an alleged expert as to finger-print impressions was error and of such a material character as to have wrought grave injury to the defendant and to necessitate the reversal of this judgment." Judge Samuel Seabury said for the court:
"Before testifying to his opinion as to the identity of the defendant's finger prints with the marks upon the board the witness explained fully his
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