THE historic move to axe the “not proven” verdict in Scotland’s courts is about “modernising” the system, not driving up convictions, Justice Secretary Angela Constance said today.

Legislation to axe the centuries-old third verdict, unique to Scottish law, was passed on Wednesday as part of a package of measures within the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, including establishing a specialist sexual offences court, a victims’ commissioner, and requiring a two-thirds majority for juries to convict. 

But concerns have been raised that the latter move could result in miscarriages of justice, with the convener of the Law Society of Scotland’s criminal law committee, Stuart Munro, warning it could result in someone being convicted “despite five members of the jury having significant doubts about their guilt.”

Dismissing the concerns, which come on top of those raised by Labour over the lack of scrutiny afforded to last-minute additions to the Bill, Ms Constance told BBC Radio Scotland: “The purpose of this reform is neither to decrease or increase convictions, it is about modernising our justice system.”

Arguing that the change to the jury system was required to partner the scrapping of the “not proven” verdict and the move to a decision between “guilty” and “not guilty,” she called the Bill “a long overdue reform that is much required for modernising our justice system.”

“Scotland has been very unique in having three verdicts, no other comparable jurisdiction has three verdicts,” Ms Constance said.

“We have three verdicts right now and two are acquittals. And the research on this is extensive, the debate goes back decades.

“The bottom line is that the not proven verdict traumatises victims and families and actually leaves a lingering stigma on the accused.”