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Not proven (Scots: No pruiven, Scottish Gaelic: gun dearbhadh [1]) is a verdict available to a court of law in Scotland. Under Scots law, a criminal trial may end in one of three verdicts, one of conviction ("guilty") and two of acquittal ("not proven" and "not guilty"). [2] [3]
The jury has a choice of three verdicts: guilty (a conviction), not guilty (acquittal) and not proven (also acquittal). In civil trials there is a jury of 12 people, and a hung jury is possible. The pool of potential jurors is chosen purely at random, and Scottish courts have set themselves against any form of jury vetting.
The proposed legislation includes measures to scrap the verdict of not proven in Scottish trials, and to reduce the number of jurors in Scottish trials from 15 to 12. The bill will also provides for a pilot scheme whereby some rape trials will be held without a jury. It was introduced into Parliament on 25 April 2023. [1]
Amanda Duffy, a 19-year-old Scottish student, was killed in grisly circumstances in 1992.The main suspect, Francis Auld, was tried for murder in the High Court of Justiciary in Glasgow and was acquitted when the jury returned a majority verdict of "not proven".
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This practice persisted until the 1728 trial of Carnegie of Finhaven, where the jury's right to return a verdict of not guilty, and essentially pronounce on innocence and guilt, was re-established. By the 19th century, the legal profession had come to view these 'special verdicts' as obsolete, and yet the "not proven" verdict continued to be used.
Quite unexpectedly the jury did not give a verdict of either "proven" or "not proven" but instead gave a verdict of "not guilty", thus establishing the constitutional principle of a Scottish jury's right to render one of three verdicts: "proven", "not proven" and "not guilty" which remain contentious to this day.
The case against his wife was found not proven—a Scottish legal verdict to acquit an individual as the prosecution had not proven their guilt. Burke was hanged shortly afterwards; his corpse was dissected and his skeleton displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School where, as at 2024 [update] , it remains.