Michael McMahon MSP introduced the Criminal Verdicts (Scotland) Bill in the Parliament on 27 November 2013. This member’s bill seeks to:
- remove the ‘not proven’ verdict as an option in criminal trials, leaving two possible verdicts of ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’
- change the rules relating to the number of jurors who must support a guilty verdict before the jury as a whole returns such a verdict, effectively requiring at least two-thirds in favour of a guilty verdict
This briefing considers the proposals in the bill along with work which the Scottish Government has carried out in this area.
Read SPICe briefing:
Published: 25 June 2014