Not Proven - Modern Usage

Modern Usage

In Scotland, a criminal case may be decided either "in solemn procedure" by a jury (instructed by the judge), or "in summary procedure" by the judge alone (with no jury appointed). There are various rules for when the one or the other procedure may or must be employed; in general, juries are employed for the more severe accusations, while petty crimes and offences are treated summarily. A criminal case jury consists of 15 jurors, and make their decision by a simple majority vote: 8 votes are necessary and sufficient for the verdict "guilty", which has replaced the older verdict "proven".

Approximately one third of all acquittal verdicts by Scottish juries use the formulation Not proven; the others use Not guilty. The verdict "Not proven" also is available for judges in the summary procedure, and is employed in about a fifth of the "summary" acquittals. The proportion of Not proven acquittals in general is higher in the more severe cases; but so then are the proportion of acquittals versus convictions. This might have many different reasons, e.g., that in average it might be factually more complicated to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in the more severe cases.

Both in the "solemn" and the "summary" acquittals, not proven is interpreted as indicating that the jury or judge, respectively, is not convinced of the innocence of the accused; in fact, they may be morally convinced that the accused is guilty, but do not find the proofs sufficient for a conviction. One reason for this is the rule that in such cases the evidence for the prosecution must be corroborated in order to permit a conviction. Thus, there might be a single plaintiff or witness for the prosecution, which the jury or judge believes is both truthful and trustworthy, but no other witness or circumstances against the accused. By Scottish law, the accused then should be acquitted, but often will be so by the verdict "not proven".