Chad Enderle: Davenport, Iowa; How the interpretation of fingerprints lay at the heart of a murder case - and troubling questions about the conviction remain; The Quad City Times;

STORY: "How a Davenport murder case turned on a fingerprint," by Susan Du, Stephanie Haines, Gideon Resnick and Tori Simkovic, The Medill Justice Project,  published by the Quad City Times on December 22, 2013;

PHOTO CAPTION: "Chad Enderle's known prints were compared to the print found on the cigarette box in Harris' house, and police determined his right ring finger matched. The prosecution presented seven points of similarity between the prints at trial. Several experts say seven points is low by industry standards. "

GIST:  "Since Enderle’s sentencing, studies, federal agencies on forensic sciences and some judges across the country have urged greater scrutiny of fingerprint analysis. Long established as a police technique, fingerprint evidence was born largely as a craft of record-keeping clerks and uncontested until the 1990s but has been increasingly questioned in recent years. In 2010, for instance, the U.S. Justice Department commissioned studies on not just fingerprint analysis but on a broader field of forensic sciences used to identify suspects, including DNA, hair samples and bite marks. Research on the accuracy and reliability of these forensic identification methods shows them to range from statistically reputable to junk science.........Laura Tierney , the International Association for Identification’s former chairwoman of the latent print subcommittee, said different examiners arriving at such different conclusions is “not typically the case.” She added, “We don’t see as often the identification and exclusion on the same print. Obviously, we all see something slightly differently, and the same is true of latent print examiners. It all comes down to human variation.”"

The entire story can be found at:

http://qctimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/how-a-davenport-murder-case-turned-on-a-fingerprint/article_65449c9d-b004-5c47-9a16-c3e9b4eb24b3.html

Prosecutor Mike Walton defends the Enderle conviction:  "The article credits the students with “discovering information that raised questions about the key fingerprint evidence in the case” but I found nothing newly discovered. These issues were previously raised and addressed in court. The fingerprint evidence was solid. The identification was made by a trained, experienced and certified examiner, Dennis Kern. The identification was verified locally by two other experienced, certified examiners. The print was then submitted to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Laboratory for independent examination where two more certified examiners verified the identification. These confirmations were done not because of doubt, but because Kern and the other examiners knew the significance of the print evidence and the importance of getting it right.
The jury heard this evidence. What the jury did not hear was the unexpected confirmation from an additional source. The defense hired its own fingerprint expert who initially disagreed with the identification but after observing a clear photograph of the print, changed his opinion and agreed it was Enderle’s fingerprint. The defense decided not to call him as a witness. The students’ use of Herbert MacDonnell for the article did not enhance its credibility. MacDonnell is not a certified fingerprint examiner. MacDonnell gave the most embarrassingly incompetent testimony I have ever witnessed in a courtroom. After he testified at length that he disagreed with Kern’s identification of the fingerprint I was able to point out that he was looking at the wrong print. He is quoted as saying “I would not sleep nights if I made that match” but subsequent to his testimony in Scott County, MacDonnell was convicted of two counts second-degree aggravated harassment arising from allegations he acted inappropriately with two young girls.* So what exactly causes him to lose sleep speaks for itself. Chad Enderle received a fair trial, the evidence consuming seven full days of testimony. His conviction has been affirmed on appeal. His postconviction relief application was denied but remains on appeal, the outcome unknown at this point. The fact remains that a professional and thorough investigation by the Davenport Police Department resulted in solid evidence convincing a jury unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that Chad Enderle ruthlessly and brutally murdered Greg Harris. Fingerprint analysis when done correctly remains a valuable evidentiary technique recognized by all courts in the United States and most of the world."

http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/prosecutor-defends-enderle-conviction/article_f1adb1bf-ced0-53af-b6e8-aaa6f46a95ff.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
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