Faculty List
Professor Crane teaches the Northern California Innocence Project Clinic at Santa Clara Law. Prior to joining Santa Clara, Megan taught a Wrongful Conviction Clinic at Washington University School of Law and at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Megan has been an active litigator for two decades, focusing on post-conviction defense in cases of wrongful conviction, the death penalty, and youth sentenced to extreme sentencing, as well as civil rights litigation aimed at reform of the criminal legal system and mass incarceration. Megan has litigated in state and federal courts across the country, including serving as amici in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Megan is a recognized expert on coerced confessions from youth and police interrogations. Her recent research and scholarship has focused on childhood trauma as a risk factor for an involuntary confession. Megan has presented across the country to diverse audiences, ranging from state public defender systems to international audiences to police departments.
Megan graduated from the University of Michigan School of Law, where she served as a Notes Editor for the Journal of Law Reform. She received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. After law school, Megan clerked for the Honorable Noel Anketall Kramer on the D.C. Court of Appeals.
B.A., Georgetown University
- Criminal Law
- Wrongful Conviction
- Death Penalty
- Juvenile Justice
CLAY Award – California Lawyer Attorney of the Year 2014
Honored by California Lawyer Magazine for representation of George Souliotes, resulting in a federal finding of actual innocence and a writ of habeas corpus overturning murder and arson convictions on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel.
Chapters
Megan G. Crane & Maria Hawilo, Confessions & Pleas in Youth, American Psychological Association, Chapter 23: Legal Practice – Working with Youth.
Hayley M.D. Cleary & Megan G. Crane, (2023), Oxford Handbook on Developmental Psychology and the Law, Chapter re Questioning Adolescents.
Articles
Megan Glynn Crane, Principal Interrogator, The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, 23 J. Gender Race & Just. 77, 97 (2020).
Megan Glynn Crane, Childhood Trauma's Lurking Presence in the Juvenile Interrogation Room and the Need for A Trauma-Informed Voluntariness Test for Juvenile Confessions, 62 S.D. L. Rev. 626 (2017).
Laura Nirider, Megan Crane, and Steven Drizin, Gerald Gault, Meet Brendan Dassey: Preventing Juvenile False and Coerced Confessions in the 21st Century, reprinted in Rights, Race, and Reform: 50 Years of Child Advocacy in the Juvenile Justice System, Laura Cohen et al., eds., Routledge Press (2018).
Laura Nirider, Megan Crane, and Steven Drizin, Gerald Gault, Meet Brendan Dassey: Preventing Juvenile False and Coerced Confessions in the 21st Century, NACDL Champion at 28-32 (April 2017).
Megan Crane, Laura Nirider, and Steven Drizin, The Truth About Juvenile False Confessions, American Bar Association Insights on Law & Society 16.2 (Winter 2016).
Selected Presentations, Trainings & Legislative Testimony
Presenter, Criminal Justice Town Hall Hosted by Missouri Representative Kimberly Ann-Collins, Spring 2025
Legislative Testimony – Missouri Senate re: pending legislation on juvenile parole reform, Spring 2023
Presenter, Mitigation at the Back End: Building a Case for Parole for Juvenile Lifers National Defender Investigator Association (Spring 2023, St. Louis, MO)
Presenter, Trauma & Involuntary & False Confessions
Innocence Network Conference, (Spring 2023, Phoenix, AZ – Hayley Cleary & Lauren Gottesman)
Presenter, Countering the Confession: Themes and Theories to Reframe the Narrative Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (June 2019, Freeport, ME)
Presenter, Countering the Confession: Themes and Theories to Reframe the Narrative National Forensic College (June 2018, New York, NY)
Presenter, Using the Innocence Framework to Improve Due Process
Protections in the Interrogation Room Innocence Network Conference (March 2018, Memphis, TN)
Presenter, School Diploma or the Third Degree? Challenging Youth Interrogations at School National Juvenile Defender Conference (October 2016, Atlanta, GA)
Presenter, Broken Promises? The Blight of Juvenile False
Confessions Nearly Fifty Years After Gault State Bar of Arizona 83rd
Annual Convention (June 2016, Phoenix, AZ)
Wrongful Convictions in the U.S.
U.S. Department of State – International Visitor Leadership Program (February 2016, Chicago, IL) Presentation to African delegation of law professors and judges regarding the leading causes of wrongful conviction in the U.S. and recent criminal justice reforms and efforts for future reform.
Wrongful Convictions and Eyewitness Misidentification
North Regional Major Crimes Task Force (“NORTAF”) (December 2015, Evanston, IL) By invitation, presentation for approximately thirty detectives/lead investigators at NORTAF’s biannual training.