'Not proven' verdict under attack

EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 29 (UPI) -- The unique Scottish legal verdict, "not proven," which has been under fire for 300 years, faces a new challenge from a legislator.

Scotland is the only place in the world where criminal trial juries have an alternative to guilty or not guilty verdicts. Michael McMahon, a member of the Scottish Parliament, says it should be dropped, The Scotsman reports.

"At the moment we have a system of guilty and a wee bit guilty and it doesn't work," McMahon said. "You can't be a little bit guilty. The case is either proved or not proved."

The verdict was instituted during the Scottish Reformation more than 300 years ago and has been criticized for almost that long.

A jury in 1857 ruled "not proven" when Madeleine Smith, a young woman from Glasgow's upper crust, was charge with poisoning her lover with arsenic. Sir Walter Scott, the 19th century novelist and poet, called it "that bastard verdict."

In recent years, about 20 percent of criminal cases have ended with a "not proven" verdict. McMahon said he was inspired by the release of Francis Auld, after a jury decided the case against him for the 1992 killing of a drama student from Hamilton was "not proven."