The Legal Aid Society joined a broad coalition of defender organizations in a letter to all five New York City district attorneys calling for a full, transparent, and independent audit of the New
York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Latent Print Section.

The joint letter comes in response to a near-decade delay by the Section to formally disclose that one of its fingerprint examiners erroneously matched an individual’s fingerprint to a crime scene fingerprint back in 2015 while two other examiners verified the misidentification.

Defenders and advocates expressed deep concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the fingerprint misidentification, which undermines the criminal legal system and the constitutional due process rights and right to a fair trial of the accused. Of particular concern is one of the examiners who verified the erroneous identification went on to become a trainer for the NYPD Latent Print Section and provided misleading testimony in at least two trials.

“The NYPD’s disclosure letter reveals next to nothing about how this misidentification may have negatively impacted any number of our client’s cases,” said Jenny S. Cheung, Supervising Attorney of the DNA Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “It is unacceptable that even one client would have their right to a fair trial jeopardized as a result of the lack of disclosure of all pertinent case-related information to defendants and their counsel.”

“We ask the DA’s Office to provide answers to the litany of questions raised by this disclosure letter, and promptly make all information available to attorneys and their clients,” she continued.”