Eyewitness testimony is roughly as bad.
And I don't think eyewitness testimony should be allowed in court. There was, I think, a thread about a similar topic on the short-lived spin-off forum
Politicus Maximus... but the Wayback Machine doesn't seem to recognize the name.
But the issue here, I guess, is the status of fingerprint analysis as a science or not.
I think the whole thing is a bunch of match-up and puzzle-doing; more of a hobby, really, and so even if practiced scientifically, probably not overly reliable since it depends on the abilities of the analysts more than on some rigorous standards that are harder to screw up.
Jon
Love your enemies!