[Please join In Cold Blog in welcoming award winning journalist, Erin Moriarty, as our newest contributing writer.
Erin is a correspondent for CBS 48-Hours and the co-author of Death of a Dream, a book about the brief life and tragic death of Catherine Woods. She has covered some of the nations highest profile stories and her top notch reporting has earned her nine national Emmy Awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, two Association of Women in Radio and Television Gracie Allen Awards, Top 100 Award from Irish America magazine, and the Outstanding Consumer Media Service Award. We at ICB are truly honored to have her with us.]
By Erin Moriarty
If someone had asked me three years ago to look into the Brandon Mayfield case in Portland, Oregon, it is likely I would have turned them down. He's the American lawyer who was arrested in connection with the terrorist bombing in Madrid , Spain after his fingerprint was found on a bag of bomb detonators. The evidence against him was daunting: Not only had his fingerprint been matched by three top FBI fingerprint examiners, but by an independent examiner appointed by the court. The problem is all four examiners were wrong!
A case like this frightens a reporter like me who often relies on the word and experience of law enforcement. The truth is, because fingerprint evidence carries so much weight in court, few people, let alone reporters, would have questioned it. Brandon Mayfield might still be in a federal prison today if Spanish investigators had not found the man to whom the fingerprint really belonged, an Algerian terrorist by the name of Ouhnane Daoud.
The problem in the Mayfield case is a common one. The latent print found on the bag of detonators was only a partial and distorted one. When the FBI put it through their automated system, 20 names popped out, including Mayfield's. While no two people allegedly have identical prints, apparently parts of their prints can be similar. Mayfield and Daoud share similarities.
It seems that both human error and bias may also have played a part in this case. While the FBI was sure that this was a match, Spanish investigators had their doubts and even warned their American counterparts of a possible error. The fact that Mayfield was arrested anyway may have had something to do with the fact that he had converted to Islam when he married his Egyptian-born wife.
Mayfield is not in jail today. He received a public apology and a 2 million dollar settlement from the FBI. And this reporter has gained a lot more skepticism about the evidence used so commonly in courts.
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