NCJ Number
150467
Journal
Journal of Forensic Identification Volume: 44 Issue: 4 Dated: (July- August 1994) Pages: 375-378
Date Published
1994
Length
4 pages
Annotation
In a precedent-setting trial in Washington State, a latent print examiner provided expert fingerprint testimony in a case involving two defendants being tried at the same time in front of two juries sitting in the same courtroom.
Abstract
The defendants were each charged with two counts of aggravated murder, assault I, burglary I, and taking a motor vehicle without the owner's permission. There were two juries as the defendants each provided out-of-court statements implicating the other; the trials were conducted simultaneously in order to save court money and time. A jury was excused from the courtroom when evidence was presented that was disqualified from the case it was hearing. The witness prepared two duplicate charted enlargements of one of the identifications to show to the juries, which faced each other from opposite sides of the courtroom. In order to avoid the effort of demonstrating the identification twice, jurors were shown how a comparison is made using an overhead projection of a charted enlargement which was a reproduction of the chart placed in front of each jury box. Ridge characteristics were demonstrated from the transparency. 6 notes