Are innocent people ever convicted based on fingerprint evidence?
Are innocent people ever convicted on based on fingerprint evidence? Fingerprints are 100% accurate, aren’t t they? Yes and No. Yes – innocent people are convicted of fingerprints. In the UK there have been two cases, stemming from one crime, in where people were wrongly convicted based on fingerprint evidence. One for murder and one perjury. No – fingerprints are not 100% accurate. Fingerprint evidence relies on human interpretation, and humans make errors. It took years of appeals and assistance from multiple countries for the two people in the UK have their convictions over turned. If its happened not once but twice, it shows it can happen, and the fact its so hard to appeal against fingerprint evidence indicates how compelling fingerprint evidence is. It is statistically unlikely after over a hundreds of thousands of trials cases around the world that only two people have been wrongly convicted. Fingerprints require human interpretation, humans make mistakes. Two errors in the worl
