THE HONORABLE ERIC T. WASHINGTON
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS
TOPIC: Inequalities in our Criminal Justice System
The spike in crime across the country has been blamed in part on the failure of the Courts to process criminal cases during Covid because so many criminals are out on bail awaiting trials. Those allegations are generally untrue and are crippling efforts to reform a system that is antithetical to our system of justice.
Biography
The honorable Eric T. Washington was appointed Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 2005 and served three consecutive 4 year terms as Chief Judge and Chair of the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration for the District of Columbia before retiring in 2017 and taking Senior Judge status.
Prior to being designated as Chief Judge, he was an Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and before that, he served as trial judge on the D.C. Superior Court. During his tenure as Chief Judge, Washington initiated live streaming of oral arguments; instituted a new case management system allowing for electronic accessibility to court dockets; and significantly reduced the time on appeal for cases filed. Judge Washington has co-authored a paper on sustainable court governance for a Harvard Executive Session.
Judge Washington, a past President of the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States, is a nationally recognized leader on Access to Justice Issues and works tirelessly to raise awareness of the importance of the rule of law and the role of the courts in our democracy. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington Foundation and the Public Welfare Foundation, and also serves on the Advisory Boards for the Tisch College of Tufts University and the ARC. In addition to his work as a Senior Judge, Judge Washington serves as an ADR professional with the McCammon Group. In that capacity, Judge Washington has served as a mediator in civil cases pending in Maryland and Virginia, as well as in the District of Columbia. He has been and remains active in many professional, civic and charitable organizations. He recently co-chaired the ABA’s Legal Access Job Corps Task Force and served on the Governing Council for the ABA Center for Innovation and the Advisory Board for the ABA Center for Human Rights.
Judge Washington has been the recipient of many awards and honors including: The National Bar Association’s Wiley A. Branton Symposium Leadership Award and the Washington Bar Association’s Ollie May Cooper Award. In 2014, Judge Washington was inducted into the Washington Bar Association Hall of Fame.
