LEWIS & CLARK LAW SCHOOL — Criminal Justice Reform Clinic (CJRC or Clinic) students and its director, professor Aliza Kaplan worked diligently to encourage the passage of SB 1511, which would have made Ramos v. Louisiana retroactively apply to those who were convicted by a nonunanimous jury verdict. The bill ultimately did not pass during the Oregon state legislature’s Spring 2022 session. Now, it is up to the Oregon Supreme Court to decide the issue of retroactivity. “We’ve been working on nonunanimous jury issues for many years now,” said CJRC director and professor Aliza Kaplan. “First, we researched and uncovered historical evidence of the racist origins of Oregon’s nonuanimous jury law from back in 1934. We submitted amici briefs to the US Supreme Court numerous times on the issue and then in Ramos v. Louisiana, where the Court found in 2020 that nonunanimous convictions in state criminal courts are unconstitutional.”