Michael Davis Taylor v. J.S. Stainer, Warden

The Attorney General of California appeals the district court’s grant of habeas corpus to Michael Taylor. Taylor was convicted of first-degree murder based solely on a fingerprint of his that police found on the victim’s windowsill and the inferences drawn from that print. The district court concluded that this fingerprint was not sufficient evidence to support the conviction and granted Taylor’s petition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we reverse.

I

In December 1978, police found Mildred Jackson’s body on the bedroom floor of her apartment. The medical examiner determined she died from head wounds sustained from a beating with a blunt or flat object. The police believed the killer had entered the apartment through an open kitchen window that was determined to be the “point of entry” in connection with the crime. The window’s latch was broken and the screen was bent. All other windows were closed and the doors were locked. Ms. Jackson’s television set was missing, and her bedroom had been ransacked.

The police collected a fingerprint from the bottom interior edge of the open window’s windowsill and another from a cup in the bedroom. A fingerprint expert…