Opinion ID: 1890788
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Fingerprint Smudge Report

Text: On the second day of Pace's trial, prosecutor Kim Skievaski directed sheriff's officers to conduct an experiment to determine whether a fingerprint on the window of the victim's taxicab would smudge if the window was rolled down and up again. The officers determined in a written report that a fingerprint would not smudge. This report was not provided to Pace's counsel. The postconviction court held that Pace failed to demonstrate that the withheld smudge report was sufficiently exculpatory. The court cited the following facts to support its conclusion. At the Defendant's trial, the evidence revealed the existence of one latent print attributable to Pace on the exterior of the driver's side window of Covington's cab. Defense counsel diminished the evidentiary value of this print by eliciting testimony that Pace occasionally worked for Covington and had often ridden in his cab. In addition, the State's expert conceded that there is no scientific method to determine the age of a print and a print can remain on a surface for an indefinite period of time under ideal conditions. Thus, the fingerprint evidence alone failed to establish a sufficient link between the Defendant and the murder of Covington.[n.] Given the weakness of the fingerprint evidence, a report that indicated that a print would not smudge if the window were rolled down is of little significance. [n.] Examples of more substantial evidence linking Pace to the crime are the following: witnesses placed the Defendant in Covington's cab on the morning of the murder, Pace had possession of the shotgun believed to be the murder weapon, the Defendant had human blood that matched the victim's blood type on his clothing the day of the murder, and witnesses placed the Defendant near the location where the cab was dumped after the murder. Postconviction order at 25-26 (record citations omitted). The record supports the postconviction court's factual findings, and we approve the postconviction court's denial of this claim. Pace has not demonstrated that the evidence is sufficiently exculpatory or that prejudice ensued. The information provided in the smudge report would have been cumulative to other evidence presented by Pace's counsel, and it was not favorable enough to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict. Kyles, 514 U.S. at 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555.