Back to top

Angela Davis Distinguished Professor WCL Faculty

Contact
Angela Davis
WCL | General Academics & Research
Yuma Building Y358
Degrees
B.A., Howard University 1978 ( summa cum laude)
J.D., Harvard Law School 1981

Bio

Angela J. Davis, Distinguished Professor of Law at Â鶹´«Ã½ Washington College of Law, is an expert in criminal law and procedure with a specific focus on prosecutorial power and racism in the criminal justice system. Davis previously served as director of the D.C. Public Defender Service, where she began as a staff attorney representing indigent juveniles and adults. She also served as executive director of the National Rainbow Coalition and is a former law clerk of the Honorable Theodore R. Newman, the former Chief Judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals. Davis is the author of Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Prosecutor (Oxford University Press 2007). She is also the editor of Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution and Imprisonment (Penguin Random House 2017), co-editor of Criminal Law (Sage Publications 2015) (with Professor Katheryn Russell-Brown), Trial Stories (Foundation Press 2007) (with Professor Michael E. Tigar) and the 8th edition of Basic Criminal Procedure (Thomson West, forthcoming 2020) (with Professors Stephen Saltzburg and Daniel Capra). Davis' other scholarly publications include articles in the Michigan, Iowa, Fordham, and Hofstra Law Reviews. Davis won the Pauline Ruyle Moore award for Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Prosecutor in 2009 and for her Fordham Law Review article, Prosecution and Race: The Power and Privilege of Discretion in 2000. Davis was awarded a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship in 2003. She won the Â鶹´«Ã½ Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award in 2015, the Â鶹´«Ã½ Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity, and Other Professional Contributions in 2009 and the Â鶹´«Ã½ Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Full-Time Appointment in 2002. Davis was the 2018 recipient of the D.C. Bar Thurgood Marshall Award and the 2016 recipient of the ABA Raeder-Taslitz Award.



>Davis is a member of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Law Institute and the Council on Criminal Justice. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Frederick Douglas Jordan Scholarship Board and the Board of Directors of the Sentencing Project. Davis was a reporter for the ABA Justice Kennedy Commission and a member of the ABA Commission for Effective Criminal Sanctions. Davis also served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Vera Institute of Justice Prosecution and Racial Justice Program. She teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Justice Ethics: Prosecution and Defense, and Criminal Defense: Theory and Practice.

See Also
Areas of Specialization
Criminal Law and Procedure
Trial Advocacy
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

AU Experts

Area of Expertise

Prosecutorial power and abuse; criminal law and procedure; civil rights; trial advocacy; racism in the criminal justice system; racial profiling; drug laws; prison and sentencing issues

Additional Information

Biography Angela J. Davis, professor of law at AU's Washington College of Law, is an expert in criminal law and procedure with a specific focus on prosecutorial power and racism in the criminal justice system. Davis previously served as director of the D.C. Public Defender Service, where she began as a staff attorney representing indigent juveniles and adults. She also served as executive director of the National Rainbow Coalition and is a former law clerk of the Honorable Theodore R. Newman, the former Chief Judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals. Davis is the author of Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Prosecutor (Oxford University Press 2007). She is also the editor of Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution and Imprisonment (Penguin Random House, forthcoming 2017), co-editor of Criminal Law (Sage Publications 2015) (with Professor Katheryn Russell-Brown), Trial Stories (Foundation Press 2007) (with Professor Michael E. Tigar) and the 7th edition of Basic Criminal Procedure (Thomson West, forthcoming 2017) (with Professors Stephen Saltzburg and Daniel Capra). Davis' other scholarly publications include articles in the Michigan, Iowa, Fordham, and Hofstra Law Reviews. Davis won the Pauline Ruyle Moore award for Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Prosecutor in 2009 and for her Fordham Law Review article, Prosecution and Race: The Power and Privilege of Discretion in 2000. Davis was awarded a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship in 2003. She won the Â鶹´«Ã½ Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award in 2015, the Â鶹´«Ã½ Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity, and Other Professional Contributions in 2009 and the Â鶹´«Ã½ Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Full-Time Appointment in 2002. Davis is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Frederick Douglas Jordan Scholarship Board, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the Sentencing Project. She was a reporter for the ABA Justice Kennedy Commission and a member of the ABA Commission for Effective Criminal Sanctions. Davis also served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Vera Institute of Justice Prosecution and Racial Justice Program. She teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Criminal Defense: Theory and Practice.

For the Media

To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Related Links