NCJ Number
233782
Journal
Identification Canada Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2009 Pages: 46-88
Date Published
June 2009
Length
43 pages
Annotation
This issue's featured articles investigate the deterioration rate of friction ridge finger impressions submerged in a natural water environment and reports on cases in which lip-print evidence (cheiloscopy) was used to identify suspects.
Abstract
The study reported in the first article performed tests in order to determine whether the recoverability and individualizing for fingerprints differed between those located midway (1.5 m from the water's surface) and at the bottom (3.0 m) of a basin in Lake Ontario. The deterioration rate was found to be faster for the fingerprints placed at the midway level compared to samples at the bottom. It was also determined that midway submerged samples lose their individualizing power between 24 and 168 hours of submergence. The article advises that this is a preliminary study and additional research is needed in order to augment and expand on friction ridge compared with sediment interactions. The second article reviews the history of and research on the use of lip prints as means of identifying individuals. Studies have concluded that lip prints are unique to an individual, and persist in their characteristics over a period of years. This article describes cases in Canada and the United States that involved lip-print evidence. In the United States a defendant (Lavelle Davis) in a homicide case was convicted largely due to the individualization of his lip print on a roll of duct tape found by investigators near the murder scene. The case was successfully appealed based on the lack of general acceptance of lip-print evidence in the scientific community. Although no Canadian case law involving expert opinion testimony on lip-print evidence was located for this article, the author describes the procedures he personally used in a case in which a lip impression was developed.