The Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers has honored Angela J. Davis's Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor with its Award for Excellence. Davis received a 2003 Soros Justice Senior Fellowship to write the book, which was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press.

According to the Association of American Publishers, the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Awards for Excellence recognize authors and publishers "for their commitment to pioneering works of research and for contributing to works of scholarship whose innovation in conception, production, and design is a landmark for their fields." Davis's book received the award in the "Law and Legal Studies" category.

Davis, a professor of law at American University's Washington College of Law, is an expert in criminal law and procedure with a focus on racism in the criminal justice system and prosecutorial power. 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. Davis is a former law clerk of the Honorable Theodore R. Newman, the former Chief Judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals. Davis’s publications include “Benign Neglect of Race Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System,” in the Michigan Law Review; “Race, Cops, and Traffic Stops,” in the Miami University Law Review; and "The American Prosecutor: Independence, Power, and the Threat of Tyranny," in the Iowa Law Review. Davis won the Pauline Ruyle Moore Award for her Fordham Law Review article, "Prosecution and Race: The Power and Privilege of Discretion.”