Scottish Greens pledge to abolish not proven verdict
Scottish Greens would abolish the ‘not proven’ verdict, the party has announced.
Scotland, unlike most of the world's legal systems, has three possible verdicts in criminal cases - guilty, not guilty and not proven – but in practice the ‘not proven’ outcome is an acquittal, with the same outcome as ‘not guilty’. This often creates significant confusion for jurors.
Commenting, Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: “Having an ambiguous third option as a possible verdict in criminal trials is confusing for juries and unfair on both complainers and the accused. Importantly, this verdict is disproportionately used in rape trials where often the victim faces a torrid time in court. That needs to end.
“As well as the risk of victims not getting closure, there is also a stigma is attached to the not proven verdict. Anyone being acquitted of a crime would want to hear the words ‘not guilty’ rather than ‘not proven’.
“I’m determined to remove this archaic anomaly from our legal system and the Scottish Greens manifesto will commit to doing so.”