Opinion ID: 2070003
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Call Independent Fingerprint Expert

Text: Sanchez-Rengifo argues that the trial court erred in denying his § 23-110 motion on the grounds that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call or consult an independent fingerprint expert. Defense counsel called Ms. Florine Allen, the fingerprint expert of the Metropolitan Police Department, who analyzed the latent fingerprints recovered from the apartment where the crimes occurred. Ms. Allen testified that none of the latent fingerprints recovered from the [crime] scene connected [Sanchez-Rengifo] to the offense. The government elicited from the crime scene search officer, Joseph Anderson, that there are some persons who will not leave fingerprints. We call these people nonsecreters. Sanchez-Rengifo argues that trial counsel should have secured an expert to determine whether he was a secreter. He contends that an expert who tested him post-trial concluded that he was likely to leave a print on a smooth, receptive surface. Such evidence, Sanchez-Rengifo contends, would have prevented the government from undermining his argument that he was not the assailant because his fingerprints were not recovered from the crime scene. Again, the argument that trial counsel was ineffective is based upon the advantage of hindsight after hearing the government's response to the absence of fingerprint evidence at trial. The trial court concluded that the decision to use the government's expert to show that Sanchez-Rengifo could not be connected to the crime by fingerprints after the government's efforts to locate fingerprints, was not unreasonable under prevailing norms. We need not decide whether this strategy rose to the level of constitutional deficiency because Strickland prejudice has not been shown. The evidence against Sanchez-Rengifo was overwhelming, as above-described. There was evidence that Sanchez-Rengifo's prints were not recovered from the van either, although the evidence showed that he had used it. With this evidence, the government could have still argued that prints may not be found for a person in a location where he is known to have been. Sanchez-Rengifo does not contend that an additional fingerprint expert could have identified someone else as the rapist. For all of these reasons, we conclude that Sanchez-Rengifo has not shown the requisite prejudice to prevail on this motion. See Kinard, supra, 635 A.2d at 1305 (citing Strickland, supra, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052).