Posted by Edwardo Palma on October 18, 1999 at 19:19:38:
I have taken the time to review the latent print in question. I down loaded the images posted on the SCAFO internet site and viewed them in Adobe PhotoShop.
After an analysis of the latent I concluded that it is not uncommon in quality with many other latent prints I view for the San Diego Police Department. In fact, it would be retained and compared with inked fingerprint examplers.
My comparison and conclusion of the two prints reveled many discrepancies in ridge characteristics. There is no way this print would have beed identified. And with respect to the latent print, Mckie's thumb print would be excluded has being the maker of the latent print.
I want to thank those individuals involved in bring this case up for review and a special thanks to PAT W.
I can't say it enough about the good work that David Ashbaugh's put into his research and instructional training he gave to me on quantiative and qualitative analyses that permits me to stand on firm scientific analysis of a questionable print.
erp