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Spain Disputes FBI Version of Oregon Lawyer Fingerprint Match

Brandon Mayfield is the Oregon lawyer arrested and held in detention for two weeks due to an erroneous fingerprint match by the FBI. The FBI has apologized to Mayfield, but Spanish forensic experts are still blaming the FBI for their insistence that they were right about Mayfield's fingerprint being on a bag linked to the Spain train bombers when they were wrong:

...in interviews this week, Spanish officials vehemently denied ever backing up that assessment, saying they had told American law enforcement officials from the start, after their own tests, that the match was negative. The Spanish officials said their American counterparts relentlessly pressed their case anyway, explaining away stark proof of a flawed link — including what the Spanish described as tell-tale forensic signs — and seemingly refusing to accept the notion that they were mistaken.

"They had a justification for everything," said Pedro Luis Melida Lledo, head of the fingerprint unit for the Spanish National Police, whose team analyzed the prints in question and met with the Americans on April 21. "But I just couldn't see it." The Spaniards, who continued to examine the fingerprints, eventually made their own match, to an Algerian citizen, whom they then arrested.

All of our Mayfield coverage is accessible here.

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