Use in Other Jurisdictions
Since 1989, in the Italian juridical system, there are five different modes of acquittal available. Two of these correspond roughly to the Scottish Not guilty and Not proven, respectively.
In general, the Scottish verdict has not been permanently adopted outside its home country, but it was sometimes used in colonial Canada, especially by some judges in southwestern Ontario . Its most famous use in the United States came when Senator Arlen Specter tried to vote "not proven" on the two articles of impeachment of Bill Clinton (see Lewinsky scandal -- his votes were recorded as "not guilty"), and when, at the O.J. Simpson murder case, various reformers, including Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, pushed for a change to "not proven" because of what they felt was an incorrect presumption of innocence on the part of Simpson.
In 2005, a proposal was made in the University of Chicago Law Review to introduce the not proven verdict into the United States.
Read more about this topic: Not Proven