Angela J. Davis

Angela J. Davis is a Distinguished Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, where she teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Defense: Theory and Practice, and Criminal Justice Ethics. Professor Davis has been a Visiting Professor at George Washington University Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.  She has served on the adjunct faculty at George Washington, Georgetown, and Harvard Law Schools. Professor Davis is the author of Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor (Oxford University Press, 2007), the editor of Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution and Imprisonment (Pantheon, 2017), the co-editor of Trial Stories (with Professor Michael E. Tigar) (Foundation Press, 2007), and the co-author of Criminal Law (with Professor Katheryn Russell-Brown) (Sage Publications, 2015) and the 8th edition of Basic Criminal Procedure (with Professors Stephen Saltzburg and Daniel Capra) (Thomson West, 2021). Professor Davis’ other publications include articles and book chapters on prosecutorial discretion and racism in the criminal justice system. She received the Washington College of Law’s Pauline Ruyle Moore award for scholarly contribution in the area of public law in 2000 and 2009, the American University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Full-Time Appointment in 2002, the American University Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship in 2009, and the American University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award in 2015.  Professor Davis’ book Arbitrary Justice won the Association of American Publishers 2007 Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division Award for Excellence in the Law and Legal Studies Division. She was awarded a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship in 2004. Professor Davis served as the Executive Director of the National Rainbow Coalition from 1994 – 1995. From 1991 – 1994, she was the Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (“PDS”). She also served as the Deputy Director from 1988 – 1991 and as a staff attorney at PDS from 1982 – 1988. Professor Davis is a former law clerk of the Honorable Theodore R. Newman of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She is a graduate of Howard University and Harvard Law School.