/ Law Faculty/ Aliza Kaplan

Aliza Kaplan

Professor of Law and Director, Criminal Justice Reform Clinic

Pronouns: She/Her

Biography

Professor Aliza Kaplan teaches, gives presentations on, and researches in the areas of criminal law and lawyering. A leading national expert on executive clemency and wrongful convictions, Professor Kaplan also directs the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic (CJRC) where she guides students through complex legal advocacy in the areas of parole, clemency, wrongful convictions, and juvenile justice. Beyond her primary academic duties, she co-founded the Oregon Innocence Project, serves as counsel to the Forensic Justice Project, and helped establish Community Law at the Metropolitan Public Defender.

Her legal research and advocacy were instrumental in ending non-unanimous juries in Oregon. In 2016, Professor Kaplan authored a definitive study in the Oregon Law Review that unmasked the discriminatory, white supremacist roots of Oregon’s 1934 split-jury law. This research became a foundation for the national movement against split verdicts, culminating in 2020 when the U.S. Supreme Court found non-unanimous juries unconstitutional in the landmark case Ramos v. Louisiana. Following the ruling, her advocacy continued as she led efforts to ensure the jury unanimity requirement was applied retroactively to older, final convictions in the state.

Prior to her tenure at Lewis & Clark, Professor Kaplan was an Associate Professor of Legal Skills at Brooklyn Law School. Her extensive career in civil rights and systemic defense includes serving as the Deputy Director of the national Innocence Project and co-founding the New England Innocence Project. Before entering academia, she worked as an associate at Testa, Hurwitz and Thibeault in Boston and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Joseph E. Irenas of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Parallel to her legal work, she is an acclaimed documentary film producer; she co-produced the 2007 Academy Award-nominated film My Country, My Country, and the 2010 film The Oath, which earned two news Emmy nominations.

Professor Kaplan has received several of the legal field’s highest honors for her contributions to civil rights and legal education. She is the recipient of the 2024 President’s Faculty Excellence Award and the 2015 Leo Levinson Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2021, she was honored with the Oregon State Bar Award of Merit, the Bar’s highest distinction. Her advocacy has further earned her the American Constitution Society’s Hans Linde Award, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association President’s Award, and the Juneteenth Freedom Award from Uhura Sasa at the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Specialty Areas and Course Descriptions

Academic Credentials

BA 1991 The George Washington University
JD 1999 Northeastern University School of Law

Bibliography

Publications

A Call for Constitutional Fidelity: Felony Murder Sentencing and Oregon’s Proportionality Clause, Willamette L.R. (forthcoming Fall 2026).
A New Approach Revisited: Why can’t we get rid of the Lozada bar complaint requirement? 7 (No. 1) AILA L.J. 9 (Spring 2025).
Governor Kate Brown of Oregon’s Historic Use of Clemency: Using Clemency Exactly As It Was Intended, 28 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 521 (Fall 2024) (with Mark Cebert).
An eye on reform: Examining decisions, procedures, and outcomes of the Oregon Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision release process (Academic Study and Report) (with Dr. Christopher Campbell and Mieke de Vrind) (September 2022).
Perpetuating the Presumption of Guilt: The Role of Implicit Bias in Forensic Testimony, 58 VOL. 3 Crim. Law Bull. 317 (2022) (with Janis Puracal).
The Governor’s Clemency Power: An Underused Tool to Mitigate the Impact of Measure 11 in Oregon, 24 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1163 (2020) (with Venetia Mayhew).
It’s Not a Match: Why the Law Can’t Let Go of Junk Science, 81 Alb. l. Rev. 895 (2018) (with Janis Puracal).
Overturning Apodaca v. Oregon Should Be Easy: Non-Unanimous Jury Verdicts in Criminal Cases Undermines the Credibility of the Justice System, 95 Or. L. Rev. 1 (2017) (with Amy Saack).
Contemporary Perspectives on Wrongful Conviction: An Introduction to the 2016 Innocence Network Conference, San Antonio, Texas, 45 Hofstra L. Rev 365 (2017).
Oregon’s Death Penalty: A Cost Analysis (Academic Study and Report) (with Dr. Peter Collins and Venetia Mayhew) (November 2016).
Who Could it Be Now? Challenging the Reliability of First Time In-Court Identifications After State v. Henderson and State v. Lawson, 105 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 947 (2016) (with Janis Puracal).
Contemporary Perspectives on Wrongful Conviction: An Introduction to the 2015 Innocence Network Conference, Orlando, Florida, 3 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 179 (Fall 2015).
How to Build a Public Interest Lawyer (And Help All Law Students Along the Way), 15 Loy. J. Pub. Int. L. 153 (Fall 2013).
Oregon’s Death Penalty: The Practical Reality, 17 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1 (Spring 2013).
Disabled and Disserved: The Right to Counsel for Mentally Disabled Aliens in Removal Proceedings, 26 Geo. Immig. L.J. 523 (Spring 2012).
Think [and Practice] Like a Lawyer: Research Instruction for the New Millennials, 8 Leg. Comm. & Rhetoric 153 (Fall 2011) (with Kathleen Darvil). (Awarded 2012 Outstanding Article by the American Associations of Law Libraries).
A New Approach to Ineffective Assistance of Counsel in Removal Proceedings, 62 Rutgers L. Rev. 345 (Winter 2010).

Latest Awards and Honors

Recipient of 2024 President’s Faculty Excellence Award