The only problem was that there were no witnesses to the murder. However the police had recently started using fingerprinting in criminal cases. Only hours before his death . Hiller had painted some wood near his kitchen window. The police found some fingerprints in the wet paint . During the trial , the police proved that the fingerprints belonged to Jennings , and he was convicted of Hiller's murder. since then , fingerprinting has helped in the conviction of hundreds of thousands of criminals