Biography

Ieshaah Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law, where she teaches Evidence, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. Before joining Howard, Professor Murphy was an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal Defense and Racial Justice Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law. Under her leadership, the Clinic fought against mass incarceration and racial injustice in the criminal legal system through direct representation, community engagement, and strategic action. Her teaching and scholarly work are centered on criminal law and procedure, racial disparities in the criminal legal system, and indigent defense reform.

Before her tenure at UDC Law, Professor Murphy spent over a decade practicing as a civil rights attorney and public defender. She most recently served as a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, where she represented incarcerated individuals in their efforts to secure parole and tackled a range of issues at the intersection of civil rights and the criminal legal system. As a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), she represented hundreds of indigent children and adults charged with serious offenses. At PDS, she also supervised attorneys and co-founded the agency’s annual week-long defender training program for law students from historically excluded communities.

Professor Murphy is a frequent trainer for lawyers and law students on topics related to criminal defense, race equity, and trial advocacy. She is on the teaching faculty for the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop (TAW) and has previously served as an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law and George Washington University Law School. Additionally, she has been a teaching faculty member for the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC), the Deborah T. Creek Criminal Practice Institute (CPI), and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) Train the Trainer program, as well as several other defender training programs.

As a founding member of the Black Public Defender Association (BPDA), Professor Murphy serves as the training director, where she develops and leads race-conscious training programs for defenders nationwide. Originally from Buffalo, NY, she earned her B.A. in Sociology, Phi Beta Kappa, from Spelman College, where she was a Gates Millennium Scholar, Dean’s Scholar, and valedictorian. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she won multiple awards for excellence in trial advocacy.

Professor Murphy’s commitment to advocating for those impacted by the criminal legal system runs deep. During law school, she defended indigent clients as a student attorney in the Criminal Justice Institute, represented incarcerated individuals in prison disciplinary hearings through the Prison Legal Assistance Project, and held summer clerkships at the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Bronx Defenders. 

Professor Murphy is a member of the bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia.