was used to identify a murder weapon. the pistol used to kill cliff merck had been sold to a drug dealer by robert and gerald cowan, but for some reason, the cowans' fingerprints did not match those found at the crime scene. >> the person who attempted the comparison was then able to make a match, and he failed to have another examiner verify his conclusions. >> this was a breach of protocol. the standard operating procedure in all crime labs requires a fingerprint examiner to have someone verify his or her conclusions. so the fingerprints were resubmitted for analysis, and this time, the results were verified by a supervisor. the fingerprints found in the