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NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, One Charles Doe Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any editorial errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Errors may be reported by E-mail at the following address: reporter@courts.state.nh.us. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ___________________________ Hillsborough-northern judicial district No. 2006-669 THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE v. DAVID S. CONNOR Argued: October 18, 2007 Opinion Issued: December 14, 2007 Kelly A. Ayotte, attorney general (Susan P. McGinnis, assistant attorney general, on the brief and orally), for the State. James T. Brooks, assistant appellate defender, of Concord, on the brief and orally, for the defendant. GALWAY, J. The defendant, David S. Connor, appeals his convictions on three counts of arson, see RSA 634:1 (2007), following a jury trial in Superior Court (Mangones, J.). We reverse and remand. The record supports the following. The defendant's convictions stem from three separate fires, all occurring in the early morning hours of August 19, 2004. The first fire was started at an apartment building at 295 Amherst Street in Manchester. It was later determined that the fire originated from a pickle jar containing flammable liquid, found on a shelf in a first floor community closet. Fingerprints were lifted from the jar and sent to the state

forensic lab for analysis. The two additional fires occurred at 291 Manchester Street and 459 Beech Street. At trial, Timothy Jackson, a criminalist at the state lab who was qualified as an expert in latent fingerprint analysis, testified to his identification of the fingerprints found on the pickle jar. According to his testimony, the latent fingerprint methodology utilized by the state lab follows a four-step procedure known as "ACE-V"

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New Hampshire Law