Research Paper On Brandon Mayfield

Brandon Mayfield was wrongfully accused of being the bomber in 2004 Madrid Train Bombings. On March 11, 2004 Al -Qaeda inspiring terrorist initiated a bomb attack on the train killing 193 people and wounded over 1,000. As a result, the crime was investigated, and two fingerprints were retrieved from a bag. When the fingerprints came back there were 20 possible matches, and Brandon was one of them. In the past Brandon was in the military and was arrested for a misunderstanding, which caused his prints to be in the system. Brandon’s prints were not identical to those left on the bag, but the FBI used this as an opportunity to investigate his background. The FBI. arrested him and held him for two weeks. They used details from his private life to argue that Brandon was the man that

The FBI did not receive a direct match of the print, which allowed them to link the crime to Brandon Mayfield. However, they invaded his privacy, and then used details from his personal life, such as his religious beliefs to associate him with the crime. He can practice any religion that he would like according to the first amendment. He was not trying to advance his religion or attempting to harm anyone, so that should have never been use. Also, they did not have probable cause to link him to the crime. Just because he Islamic does not make him a terrorist. I would argue that the FBI was stereotyping and racially profiling. What I found most troubling in the article is when it discussed how the FBI refused to stop the investigation even after the Spanish Police continuously told them the prints did not match. To me it seemed like they just wanted to put someone behind bars to close the case. For years millions of innocent people have been imprisoned and even killed from crimes they did not commit due to investigation errors. What caused them to backdown was the Spanish police decision to conclusively matched the print to the real