Angela J. Davis, professor of law at American University 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 American Prosecutor (Oxford University Press 2007). Davis is also the co-editor (with Professor Michael E. Tigar) of Trial Stories (Foundation Press 2007) and the 5th edition of Basic Criminal Procedure (Thomson West 2009) (with Professors Stephen Saltzburg and Daniel Capra).
She was awarded a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship in 2003. Davis won the American University Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity, and Other Professional Contributions in 2009 and the American University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Full-Time Appointment in 2002. She teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Criminal Defense: Theory and Practice.