when Biometrics go wrong!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/26/fbi_madrid_blunder/
Over reliance on digital images of fingerprints led the FBI to wrongly suspect an Oregon lawyer of involvement in Madrid train bombings.
Muslim-convert Brandon Mayfield spent 17 days in detention after an FBI Lab wrongly linked him to prints recovered by Spanish police investigating the 11 March terrorist outrage. US authorities matched digital images of partial latent fingerprints obtained from plastic bags that contained detonator caps to Mayfield, leading to his arrest.
But last week Spanish investigators matched the fingerprints to an Algerian, forcing the FBI to admit it was wrong. A US court cleared Mayfield of all charges earlier this week. The FBI has apologised to Mayfield and his family for the blunder and issued a statement promising to review procedures
The statement said: "The FBI identification was based on an image of substandard quality, which was particularly problematic because of the remarkable number of points of similarity between..................
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