History Main / NotProven

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'' episode "Samaritan" (based on the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Manhood"), the team discover a homophobic policeman waited for four minutes to assist his gay partner who was caught in a crossfire and died- the gunman was also killed). The CPS decide that they're never going to make manslaughter by gross negligence stick and instead go for misconduct in a public office. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: the CCTV footage of him hanging around is too grainy to identify him and is thrown out by the judge for being prejudicial because of it, the medical experts can't say whether arriving four minutes earlier would have saved him and the officer who knew he did it refuses to testify. The copper is acquitted.]]

* In most ''/Franchise/CarmenSandiego'' games, this will occur if you catch the suspect while having an invalid warrant. And in some earlier games, [[LuckBasedMission the case may not actually include enough information for you to form a valid warrant]].

** By the end of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', [[spoiler:it's clear that Lucius Malfoy slipped Riddle's diary into Ginny's cauldron, causing all the attacks that occurred throughout the year. However, the heroes ultimately have no proof of his wrongdoing, so he gets to pull a VillainExitStageLeft.]]

* By the end of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', [[spoiler:it's clear that Lucius Malfoy slipped Riddle's diary into Ginny's cauldron, causing all the attacks that occurred throughout the year. However, the heroes ultimately have no proof of his wrongdoing, so he gets to pull a VillainExitStageLeft.]]

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', it was revealed that, when Voldemort killed his Muggle relatives, the residents of the village where they lived were sure the victims' gardener, Frank Bryce, was the murderer, despite the police having to release Bryce due to being unable to prove the victims were murdered in the first place (the Killing Curse doesn't leave marks that can be detected by non-magical forensics). He lived under suspicion for the rest of his life, and ultimately died when Voldemort returned to the village to hide out one night and he subsequently went to investigate.

* In ''Literature/KrisLongknife: Furious'', Kris is tried for crimes against humanity on Musashi.[[labelnote:Explanation (spoilers for ''Daring'')]]It's not stated precisely what she's charged with, but the inciting incident is her launching a first strike against a [[NoNameGiven still-unnamed]] species of PlanetLooters without orders to that effect (she was leading a ''scouting'' mission), and destroying their PlanetSpaceship {{Mothership}} which likely killed a few ''billion'' of them. She did this after concluding, rightly as it turned out but based on relatively circumstantial evidence, that they were responsible for the genocide of one intelligent species and intent on the destruction of another.[[/labelnote]] The panel of judges returns a verdict of "not proven", which her attorney explains as being along the lines of, they're not convinced she did the right thing but they don't think the prosecutor made a convincing argument either.

* In ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'', Kurt's father spent the last 25 years with half the town, Kurt included, convinced he had abducted and murdered Kurt's childhood friend Taylor Shaw, though the police couldn't prove anything. [[spoiler:He's absolved early in season 1 by the revelation that Jane Doe is Taylor Shaw (proven by a DNA test) and based on the timeline had to have been abducted by someone else entirely. While the season 1 finale shows this test to have been faked, he fesses up to Kurt mid-season that he didn't alibi out because he was ashamed of himself for having attempted suicide--which happened at the same time that Shaw went missing.]]

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* In ''Growing Up Black'', when some relatives of Sirius Black found out he was never allowed to plead his case in a trial, his maternal Grandfather argued at the Wizengamot that Dumbledore's testimony was just hearsay and testimony from muggles was inadmissible. Then, when asked if he wanted Sirius to be given a trial, his Grandfather instead invoked a law stating that, as a pureblood, Sirius shouldn't be forced to stay in Azkaban for more than 30 days without a trial and, because he was, the charges he'd been sent there for should be dropped. People who still believe Sirius to be guilty usually state he got OffOnATechnicality.

* The ''Fanfic/AllGuardsmenParty'' is cleared of criminal incompetence in [[spoiler: allowing their two Astartes handlers to be crushed by a Tyranid flyer and bisected by a Hive Tyrant, respectively]] by a Ordo Xenos tribunal. Two-thirds of it, anyway.

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%%* Invoked literally in Anne Perry's ''The Sins of the Wolf''.
* The Literature/LordPeterWimsey novel ''Have His Carcase'' ends with Peter and Harriet knowing who committed the murder, how it was done, and that it would be stunningly difficult to prove it. Harriet, however, points out that the reason for the murder was about to arise again, so they do decide to go to court over it..

* In ''[[Literature/RetrievalArtist The Disappeared]]'', this leads to a multicultural kerfluffle. Under the Rev legal system, a lawyer is essentially obligated to be a character witness for the accused, and if the accused is found innocent and convicted of a later crime, the lawyer is an accessory. One human lawyer made a huge legal sensation by defending a client when the court couldn't prove his guilt ''on the specific charges'', but when the crook was later found guilty of something else, the court system turned against the lawyer.
* In ''Literature/KrisLongknife: Furious'', Kris is tried for crimes against humanity on Musashi.[[labelnote:Explanation (spoilers for ''Daring'')]]It's not stated precisely what she's charged with, but the inciting incident is her launching a first strike against a [[NoNameGiven still-unnamed]] species of PlanetLooters without orders to that effect (she was leading a ''scouting'' mission), and destroying their PlanetSpaceship {{Mothership}} which likely killed a few ''billion'' of them. She did this after concluding, rightly as it turned out but based on relatively circumstantial evidence, that they were responsible for the genocide of one intelligent species and intent on the destruction of another.[[/labelnote]] The panel of judges returns a verdict of "not proven", which her attorney explains as being along the lines of, they're not convinced she did the right thing but they don't think the prosecutor made a convincing argument either.

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* ''Series/ColdCase'' had one episode end with this, in which a [[spoiler: prominent politician]] admits to Valens, off the record, that he committed the murder years ago. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: his sister]], in a misguided show of loyalty ([[spoiler: and possibly one-sided [[BrotherSisterIncest love]]]]), has already confessed to everything, and there's no evidence to contradict her claims.
* ''Series/{{Justified}}'' plays this straight and subverts it when the kidnapping and attempted murder charges against Boyd Crowder are dropped. The testimony of the only witnesses, Ava Crowder and Raylan Givens, is deemed tainted [[spoiler:because they started sleeping together]] and can be used to easily create reasonable doubt in a jury. Boyd did intimidate Ava into staying in the house till Raylan arrived so the kidnapping charge is valid (though difficult to prove), however, Boyd drew his gun in response to Ava pointing a shotgun at him so the attempted murder is primarily (it is implied that he was still deciding whether to try and kill them) a case of self defense.
** The reason the prosecutors rely on the kidnapping and attempted murder charges so much is because they have no evidence to convict Boyd of the charges he is 100% guilty of: bank robbery, blowing up a church and murder.
** Boyd's father Bowden is convicted of the charges he is guilty of but the sheriff who arrested him is found to be working for a Columbian drug cartel so a retrial is ordered. The prosecutor decides not to bother proving the case again since Bowden only has a few months of his sentence left anyway.
** In season two, murder charges against [[spoiler: Dicky Bennett]] are dropped after the only witness recants his testimony. The case would still have been difficult to prove since the witness was an accomplice and the physical evidence is more incriminating toward him than [[spoiler: Dicky]]. Everyone knows what actually happened but an unbiased jury would have probably acquitted barring more incriminating evidence.
* An episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has the team arrest a man who fits the profile perfectly, and who has no alibis for any of the murders, but as there isn't any definitive evidence to say he did it, the team aren't sure what to do with him. After he is released, the team enact a plan to get him to confess, but [[spoiler: it goes horribly wrong and results in his death and the death of someone else, and they ''still'' don't have any proof that he did it]].
* Baltar's trial in the rebooted ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' ends with a not-guilty verdict that Adama (who was the swing vote on the judges' panel) explains this way, saying to Roslin that "not guilty is not the same as innocent" and that the verdict is because "the defense made their case; the prosecution didn't". A good decision, considering that Baltar [[NotMeThisTime happened to be innocent]] of the specific charges brought against him.
* In ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'', Kurt's father spent the last 25 years with half the town, Kurt included, convinced he had abducted and murdered Kurt's childhood friend Taylor Shaw, though the police couldn't prove anything. [[spoiler:He's absolved early in season 1 by the revelation that Jane Doe is Taylor Shaw (proven by a DNA test) and based on the timeline had to have been abducted by someone else entirely. While the season 1 finale shows this test to have been faked, he fesses up to Kurt mid-season that he didn't alibi out because he was ashamed of himself for having attempted suicide--which happened at the same time that Shaw went missing.]]
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': A court case has the Honourable Mr Justice Kilbraken on trial:
-->'''Clerk:''' If I may charge you, m'lud, you are charged m'lud that on the fourteenth day of June 1970 you did commit acts likely to cause of breach of the peace. How plead you, m'lud, guilty or not guilty?\\
'''Judge Kilbraken:''' Not guilty. Case not proven. Court adjourned. (''He hits the dock; everyone proceeds to walk off until the main judge stops them'')

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*** In the third case, [[spoiler:Apollo knows who to accuse but his case hits a wall when he lacks anything concrete enough to get the guilty party to admit to their guilt. The only way he can slam the book on the actual culprit is by having the defendant admit to his own culpability in a different but related crime. The other crime carries a harsh sentence in his homeland but not in Apollo's country, which makes it advantageous to him to confess now instead of being found guilty at a later time. In doing so, the murderer would be revealed as the two were co-conspirators on the latter crime.]] After threatening to blow the lid on the whole affair, the real guilty party loses it and breaks down.

** Happened in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' with Manny Coachen. [[spoiler: He was never convicted of murdering Cece Yew because TheSyndicate that he worked for stole the evidence from the prosecution.]]
** The third case of ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney: Adventures'' involves this, but in a twist [[spoiler: it's your client who gets off on this... right as Ryunosuke (Phoenix's ancestor) starts thinking he may be guilty after all. Unfortunately, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero he's done such a good job defending his client that the judge and jury feel there isn't enough evicence to be certain of the defendant's guilt]], and the trial ends in a Not Guilty verdict. Turns out he ''is'' guilty after all... [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty but he's promptly murdered right after he walks free]]]].
* The protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'' [[spoiler:gets off for breaking into Cecilia’s hotel room because ''none'' of the evidence against him is both present and admissible, thanks to Mortelli.]]

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