Reading Comprehension

PT136 · S1 · P2 · Q12 Reliability and Admissibility of Fingerprint Evidence

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Passage A In this appeal of his criminal conviction, the defendant challenges the fingerprint evidence used against him at trial, claiming that fingerprint identification theory has not been adequately tested.

Topic

The reliability and standards of fingerprint identification as evidence in criminal trials

Framework

Present Debate

Main Point

Passage A argues that while fingerprint identification may lack uniform scientific standards, it is a valuable and reliable form of evidence that courts should continue to accept. Passage B, in contrast, points out the lack of objective standards and the unknown error rates, challenging the premise that fingerprint identification is as reliable as claimed. *The Most Valuable Sentences:* - Passage A: (P3). - Passage B: (P1).

Passage A: Court Response to the Challenge

The defendant in a criminal trial challenges the fingerprint evidence used to convict him, focusing on the lack of scientific testing, absence of studies proving the uniqueness of fingerprints, and undefined error rates. He also criticizes the lack of uniform standards among examiners, especially regarding the number of matching features needed for identification.

P2: Concerns About Standards and Error Rates

The defendant argues that examiners don’t have consistent guidelines and references courtroom testimony that there's no standard for “points of identification.” He emphasizes that error rates for fingerprint misidentification aren't established.

P3: Court Defense of Fingerprint Evidence

Although the court concedes that fingerprint evidence isn’t a “scientific law,” it notes a long history of expert agreement on its reliability and widespread courtroom use. The judge acknowledges that more rigorous standards may be helpful, but sees no cause to reject print evidence entirely due to its track record.

12.

Which one of the following principles underlies the arguments in both passages?

  1. Courts should be extremely reluctant

    Only Passage A

    This matches a sentiment that Passage A had, but we can't match this to Passage B, which never talked about whether fingerprinting has / hasn't withstood the test of time. B never argued, "since fingerprinting evidence hasn't withstood the test of time, we shouldn't be reluctant to reject it as a form of evidence" (that's also an illegal negation of what this answer says).

    1% picked this

  2. Defendants should have the right

    Only Passage B

    This principle would help B's skeptical argument about fingerprinting, but how would it match A's argument? The author of A would probably acknowledge that, "Yes, this is true. Defendants should have the right to challenge forms of evidence whose reliability is unproven", but this principle doesn't have anything to do with her argument that "Fingerprinting is an acceptable form of evidence".

    5% picked this

  3. To evaluate the value of

    Only Passage B

    This answer is appealingly phrased not as a conditional but as a "Factor X is relevant to Judgment Y" type of idea. Given that our authors have differing conclusions, we won't be able to pick an "If / Then" answer where the outcome matches both of their conclusions. But something like this can work for both, as long as both authors discussed how likely it is that partial prints from two people would match, and then connected that to whether we should / shouldn't trust fingerprint evidence. However, only B discussed the probability of partial prints matching.

    11% picked this

  4. Fingerprint identification should not be

    Only Passage B

    This rule says, If rigorous testing has then fingerprinting not shown fingerprinting → should not be to have a low error rate considered to have low error rate This is definitely something the author of B is talking about in her final paragraph, but does the author of A talk about this? Not really. Passage A thinks that it was fine for the trial court to say that fingerprinting has a low error rate, but the rationale for that wasn't based on "rigorous tests having proven it".

    11% picked this

  5. Correct

    Fingerprint examiners must follow objective

    Why this is right

    This answer is annoying in the sense that it only has the power to match passage B's argument, in a conditional strengthening kind of way: If examiners don't follow → Fingerprint evidence objective standards is not reliable This definitely reflects how Passage B thinks. For this to reflect how Passage A thinks, it feels like we'd be doing an illegal negation and thinking, If examiners do follow → Fingerprint evidence objective standards is reliable But ultimately this is the best available answer, because it's the only answer that overlapped with both passages: 1. the criterion mentioned in the answer (do / don't examiners follow objective standards) was talked about by both authors. 2. the judgment mentioned in the answer (is / isn't fingerprint identification reliable) was talked about by both authors This answer choice, if true, would justify the reasoning in Passage B, whereas it does not have that effect for Passage A. But we're only being asked whether this principle underlay the thinking in both passages, and it's fair to say that both authors thought that there was a relationship between objective standards for examiners and the reliability of fingerprint evidence. The author of Passage A certainly felt the need to cover this ground --- in defending the reliability of fingerprinting, he seemed to feel the need to establish, "Look, there are objective standards for the examiners", so it seems like he implicitly agrees with this answer choice.

    Skill tested: Principle · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    72% picked this

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