Professor Johnson, prior to joining Georgetown University Law Center, was a supervising attorney in the Trial Division at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), where she worked for eight years. At PDS Ms. Johnson was assigned to the most serious cases at the “Felony One” level, and her experience included numerous trials in D.C. Superior Court representing indigent clients facing charges including homicide, sexual assault, and armed offenses. Ms. Johnson’s responsibilities at PDS also included supervising other trial attorneys and serving as one of the agency’s two representatives to the D.C. Superior Court Sentencing Guidelines Commission. In 2009, Ms. Johnson was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining PDS, Professor Johnson was an E. Barrett Prettyman fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. As a fellow she represented indigent adults in the D.C. Superior Court and supervised students in the Criminal Justice Clinic. Ms. Johnson earned her law degree from New York University Law School in 2000 and she earned her B.A. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1995.
Scholarship
Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
Vida B. Johnson, Prosecutors Who Police the Police are Good People, 87 Fordham L. Rev. Online 13-19 (2018).
Vida B. Johnson, Federal Criminal Defendants Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire? Brady and the United States Attorney’s Office, 67 Cath. U. L. Rev. 321-364 (2018).
Vida B. Johnson, Bias in Blue: Instructing Jurors to Consider the Testimony of Police Officer Witnesses with Caution,44 Pepp. L. Rev. 245-304 (2017). [WWW] [HEIN] [W] [L]
Vida B. Johnson, Arresting Batson: How Striking Jurors Based on Arrest Records Violates Batson,34 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 387-424 (2016). [WWW] [HEIN] [W] [L]
In The News
October 3, 2018
Professors Hope Babcock, Gregg Bloche, John Copacino, Deborah Epstein, Daniel Ernst, James Feinerman, Anne Fleming, Sheila Foster, Maria Glover, Vida Johnson, Gregory Klass, David Luban, Allegra McLeod, Naomi Mezey, Sherally Munshi, Alicia Plerhoples, Jarrod Reich, Tanina Rostain, Rima Sirota, Abbe Smith, and Kristen Tiscione are among 1700 signatories on a letter, published by The New York Times, delivered to the United States Senate, October 4, 2018, presenting concerns of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's qualifications to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Second chances: More harm than good?," a letter to the editor, The Washington Post, December 7, 2016, signed by Visiting Associate Professor Vida Johnson, Professor Abbe Smith, directory, Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic, Professor Kristin Henning, director, Juvenile Justice Clinic.
