Bio
Edwards was a Special Counsel in the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project. He was previously Director from 2012-2021. Edwards seeks to end overincarceration, overcriminalization and racism in the criminal legal system in the United States. Edwards has worked directly on cases and campaigns seeking to reform a wide variety of issues, including pretrial practices, unconstitutional policing, underfunding of public defense, excessive sentencing, prosecutorial misconduct, juvenile life without parole sentences, and drug prohibition, particularly threats to marijuana legalization laws. Edwards has worked closely with the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice, which seeks to reduce the incarcerated population by 50 percent. Edwards was the lead author on the ACLU’s groundbreaking national report Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests, which documented staggering racial disparities in the enforcement of marijuana possession laws across the country.
Edwards has been working on criminal justice reform for over 20 years. Before joining the ACLU, Edwards was a staff attorney at the Innocence Project and leading national expert on eyewitness identification reform, a public defender at the Bronx Defenders, a Criminal Justice Fellow at the Drum Major Institute of Public Policy and an investigator at the Capital Defender Office in New York.
Edwards’ expertise has been featured in news outlets across the country, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Vice News.
Edwards earned his J.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Public Interest Scholar, and his B.A. with honors at Vassar College.
Featured work
Feb 21, 2020
Racist Drug Laws Lead to Racist Enforcement in Cities Across the Country
Nov 18, 2019
An Arizona Sheriff Deputy's Abuse of a Quadruple Amputee Teen Highlights a Policing Culture That Must Change
May 16, 2019
Our Government Has Failed to Defend the Sixth Amendment
Oct 22, 2018
Mississippi Sentences Man to 8 Years in Prison for Medical Marijuana He Purchased Legally in Another State
Oct 4, 2018
San Francisco Is a Hotbed of Illegal Race-Based Policing
Jan 5, 2018
Jeff Sessions’ Reversion Back to a Know-Nothing Marijuana Policy
Dec 15, 2017
In Florida, the Racist War on Drugs Rages on
Oct 12, 2017
Think You Have a Constitutional Right to an Attorney? Not in Many South Carolina Courts
Sep 21, 2017
St. Louis Police’s Chants of ‘Whose Streets? Our Streets!’ Once Again Reveal the Warped Mindset Infecting Too Many Departments
Aug 31, 2016
Predictive Policing Software Is More Accurate at Predicting Policing Than Predicting Crime