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Reed v. Maryland9/6/1978
qualifications, specified the circumstances upon which he predicated his opinion and swore that he was able to express an opinion with reasonable certainty. He was exhaustively and skillfully cross-examined as to every detail of his testimony. Ample basis was afforded for the jury to come to an intelligent conclusion as to the correctness of the opinion which he expressed. In view of the progress that has been made by scientific students and those charged with the detection of crime in the police departments of the larger cities of the world, in effecting identification by means of finger-print impressions, we cannot rule as a matter of law that such evidence is incompetent. Nor does the fact that it presents to the court novel questions preclude its admission upon common-law principles. The same thing was true of typewriting, photography and X-ray photographs, and yet the reception of such evidence is a common occurrence in our courts. The evidence to prove identity often presents doubtful and unsatisfactory features. One man may be mistaken for another because they look alike, or identity of person may be inferred from similarity of features, height, expression or a variety of other circumstances. Under common-law principles whatever tends to prove any material fact is relevant and competent." Id. at 604.
The New York court made it clear that the possibility of error
in the process affected only the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility:
"The fact that error may sometimes result in effecting identification, by this means affords no reason for the exclusion of such evidence. Mistakes may also occur in effecting identification by personal appearance, casual meeting, by handwriting or by one's voice heard in the dark or over the telephone, but evidence of this character is admissible and its weight is to be determined by the jury. Courts have often allowed proof of circumstances apparently very trivial as evidence upon which identification might be effected. (State v. Rainsbarger, 74 Ia. 196; Wilbur v. Hubbard, 35 Barb. 303.) The evidence of the expert as to the identity of the finger prints of the defendant, with the blood marks found upon the clapboards of the house, was a proper subject for the consideration of the jury. The weight to be given to this evidence was for the jury, not the court, to determine. Certainly the reception of this evidence would not justify the reversal of this judgment." Id. at 605.
As Roach illustrates, the early cases concerning fingerprints admitted such evidence under the general rule which Wigmore described as " he second [of the two] axiom on which our law of Evidence rests": "All facts having rational probative value are admissible unless some specific rule forbids." 1 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 10 at 293 (3d ed. 1940) (emphasis in original). In this regard he says:
"In this respect the century of the 1800s witnessed a gradual but marked improvement in the practical enforcement of this principle. 'People were formerly frightened out of their wits,' said Chief Justice Cockburn, in 1861, 'about admitting evidence, lest juries should go wrong. In modern times we admit the evidence and discuss its weight.'" Id. at 295 (footnote omitted).
By the time the fingerprint issue reached this Court in Murphy v. State, 184 Md. 70, 85-86, 40 A.2d 239 (1944), Judge Bailey said, " his Court must take judicial notice of the fact that the use of fingerprints is an infallible means of identification." As Cerciello and Roach demonstrate, however, scientific evidence need not be so indisputable as to merit judicial notice before it warrants admissibility.
b. Ball
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