Judge Robert J. Humphreys, (Ret.) J.D.

Bio

Robert J. Humphreys is a judge on the Court of Appeals of Virginia, elected to that position by the Virginia General Assembly in April of 2000. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington & Lee University in 1972 and his law degree in 1976 from Widener University Law School.

Judge Humphreys has previously served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Delaware; Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Norfolk, Virginia; Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia Beach, Virginia; Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and was a partner in the law firm of McCardell, Inman, Benson, Strickler & Humphreys, P.C. in Virginia Beach.

He was a member of the board of directors of the National District Attorneys Association, is a past president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys and also a past chairman of the Commonwealth’s Attorneys Services Council. In 1996, he received the Robert F. Horan Award for Outstanding Service to Virginia prosecutors from the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys.

Humphreys has lectured extensively throughout the country on the subjects of trial practice, appellate practice and prosecutorial ethics. He is also a longtime faculty member of the Ernest F. Hollings Jr. National Advocacy Center and of the National College of District Attorneys and is a recipient of that organization’s Stephen Von Reisen Lecturer of Merit Award. Since 2001, he has taught courses on Trial Practice and Constitutional Criminal Procedure at Regent University Law School.

Humphreys has also served on several presidential, legislative and gubernatorial commissions including the President Clinton’s Presidential Advisory Committee on a Global Criminal Justice Information Network, Virginia Governor George Allen’s Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform Commission, the Virginia State Crime Commission and the Writ of Actual Innocence study commission. In 2005, Virginia Governor Mark Warner appointed him as Special Master to oversee a review of the procedures used in DNA analyses conducted by the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. Humphreys was a founding member of the Virginia Criminal Justice Conference in 2006 and continues as a member of that body. From 2007 to 2013, Humphreys served as Vice-Chairman of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. From 2014 to 2016, he served on the Advisory Committee on Training on Science and the Law of the National Commission on Forensic Science. In 2016, Humphreys chaired the Virginia State Bar Task Force on Revisions to the Rules of Professional Responsibility applicable only to prosecutors and in 2019, he chaired the Virginia State Bar’s Criminal Discovery Reform Task Force. He has served on the Virginia Supreme Court’s Rules Advisory Committee and currently serves on the Bench-Bar Relations Committee of the Virginia State Bar.