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Scientists force confessions from mucky fingerprints

Dillon Pyron

Gloves? 

Okay, ever heard of gloves? The smart cookies even double glove. Nowadays, nitril is all the rage in the US.

With shows like CSI, juries are putting an unreasonable burden of proof on the prosecution for technical evidence. TV makes it look like a PM can be done in a day and DNA tests happen in a couple of hours. Most PMs take at least a week unless somebody REALLY rushes it. DNA tests can take up to a month or longer. And toxiology screening takes a minimum of 72 hours, assuming there's not a queue. AFIS can take as long as a week to run. But TV land solves crimes the same day.

This fingerprint chemical analysis will probably have very limited usefullness. But somebody will get creamed.

Anonymous Coward

Gloves... 

...require planning. Sure, if you know you're going to "do crime", they're a sensible thing to have along, but if it's a crime of opportunity or passion, you might not snap 'em on...

Brian

hanky? 

I agree that gloves require prior planning, how about a handkerchief, or a nice damp towel? I may not be able to help leaving fibers, but If I have any brains at all, I can identify all the surfaces I touched, and I bet lysol will remove all of those incriminating chemicals, or at least screw them up to the point of unusabiity.

Stuart Halliday

Title 

Just carry a spray of say 9% Hydrogen peroxide solution and spray on the surfaces you touch.

This will kill any DNA and destroy the oils and will evaporate as water and oxygen.

No evidence...;-)