report, an lifts used a high-tech method to identify the killer s arm in the internet video. it apparently was a match for khalid shaikh mohammed. trace gallagher is tracking developments. we ve again covering all kinds of crime in court but never heard of vein matching. the theory is like in fingerprint the vines in your hand, structure of them are all different or unique and just like an iris scan or retina scan what they did was take an image of khalid shaikh mohammed s hand while in custody and used mathematics to figure out the location of the veins. they match that to the hand of the executioner and birngo they had a match. it s not as reliable as a fingerprint but they are using this more and more often. shep: how does this figure into pakistan s role as an ally
veins, measuring precise length and spacing. the major veins don t change. it s even similar to fingerprint analysis because we re looking at landmarks on that surface. reporter: it is less scientific than fingerprinting, but these students and the teacher, who was danny pearl s friend, believe danny s case is now solved. it was his clues we followed. and i think he would have been really proud of these students and all of the spirit with which this work was done. reporter: martha raddatz, abc news, washington. nothing is supposed to keep the post office from delivering the mail. neither snow, nor sleet, nor gloom of night. investigators say a washington state mailman spent his days at a bar and then burned the mail or took it home with him. they found nearly 8,000 letters there. he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service. doesn t quite seem enough, though, does it? oh, man.
the killer according to this report is his hand. the vein patterns on the hand in both images were a match. we asked a respected criminologist about that. together with the fact that mohammed has confessed, i think together that appoints everybody in the right direction. whether or not this will be admissible in the courtroom is a question. lawrence says that s because vein matching hasn t been fully validated as an investigative tool. the new report from the center of public integrity says a man named omar shake was wrongly convicted of killing pearl, though he did allegedly set up the kidnapping. it says mohammed was asked by a top operative to get involved because the kidnapers didn t know what to do with pearl. at one point this could have gone a different direction, right? what we diz covered is that omar shake had the original ransom note that danny would be released. and so the case turned.
it is 9:30 in the east. new evidence linking suspected 9/11 mastermind to the execution of daniel peril, the wall street journal raert and a report says vein matching compared the picture of a hand seen in a video of pearl s murder with pictures taken after mohammed s capture. mohammed doesn t deny his role in pearl s death but he has never been charged. alabama s new governor off to an apologetic start after taking office. he told a congregation that nonchristians could not be his, quote, brothers and sisters. yesterday he met with members of alabama jewish community and
whether at federal or local level whatever, the judge has to decide if this is reliable science or not. that was my next question. we know he s in guantanamo bay right now. we don t know if he ll be tried in new york. there s debate over that. even if heal go to trial, but if he does, ultimately, would this help in the prosecution s case? would this be additional evidence potentially? how does that work? indeed. we never look at any one item of evidence. we look at in conjunction with other items of evidence. we have a confession obtained in ways that might not be acceptable to the courts but this would basically support the confession and put together, you haven t ruled him out based upon the science. i think it s pretty strong evidence that they ve got the right person, the person who killed danny pearl. lawrence, one other question before i let you go. you ve worked on high profile cases. has this vein matching been used in other high profile cases before? i got to tell you,