"The United States today entered into a settlement with Brandon Mayfield, who was arrested after the misidentification of his fingerprint as matching one recovered in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings in which 191 people were killed.
“The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General in a report released in January 2006 found that the FBI did not initiate its investigation of Mr. Mayfield because of his Muslim faith and that the FBI did not misuse any provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Additionally, the Inspector General made suggestions for improving the FBI’s fingerprint identification process, and the FBI has adopted many of those suggestions, as well as suggestions made by an independent panel of fingerprint experts, to ensure that what happened to Mr. Mayfield does not happen again. The United States apologized to Mr. Mayfield as part of the settlement agreement.
“The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility in December 2005 found that the federal prosecutors who handled the investigation of Mr. Mayfield acted appropriately, professionally and ethically in this matter.”
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06-796