Scotland abolished its 300-year-old ‘not proven’ verdict — the one Walter Scott called ‘that bastard verdict’

Scotland not proven verdict abolished — Michal Klajban / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

For almost three centuries, Scottish juries had a third verdict available to them alongside “guilty” and “not guilty.” “Not proven” was an acquittal with a legal effect identical to not guilty, but it meant something different publicly. Walter Scott, sitting as sher…