Edward John Davila (born June 21, 1952) is an American lawyer who serves as a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...

. He was previously a state court judge on the

Santa Clara County Superior Court The Superior Court of California for and in the County of Santa Clara is the state trial court in and for Santa Clara County, California. The Santa Clara Superior Court serves the public by providing equal justice for all in a fair, accessible, ...

from 2001 to 2011.

Early life and education

Davila was born in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

in 1976. He then attended the

University of California, Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a Public university, public Law school in the United States, law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the ...

and earned his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1979.

Legal career

From 1981 to 1988, he served as a deputy public defender in the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office and later in private practice at the law firm of Davila & Polverino from 1988 to 2001.

Judicial career

State judicial service

On August 8, 2001, Governor

Gray Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, only a few months into his second term, Davis was recalled and remov ...

appointed Davila to serve as a judge on the

Superior Court of Santa Clara County The Superior Court of California for and in the County of Santa Clara is the state trial court in and for Santa Clara County, California. The Santa Clara Superior Court serves the public by providing equal justice for all in a fair, accessible, ...

.New judges named
'' Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal'' (August 8, 2001). Davila replaced Judge Donald Clark. While a superior court judge, Davila presided over the high-profile case of a

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

couple, Anna Ayala and Jaime Placencia, who planted a severed human finger in a bowl of

Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the ...

chili. On January 18, 2006, Davila sentenced Ayala to 9 years in prison and Placencia to 12 years and 4 months in prison.

Federal judicial service

During the 111th Congress, Senator

Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the U.S. ...

recommended Davila to fill the

vacancy created by Judge

Marilyn Hall Patel Marilyn Hall Patel (born 1938) is a former United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Patel is Indian-American, hailing from the famous Mumbai Patel famil ...

, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

.Bob Egelko
Obama nominates Edward Davila for federal bench
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' (May 21, 2010).Presidential Nomination no
PN1813-111
''Edward J. Davila, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, vice Marilyn Hall Patel, retired,'' May 20, 2010 (111th Congress) On May 20, 2010, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

formally nominated Davila to the Northern District of California. The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended his confirmation on December 1, 2010, but the Senate decided to recess without confirming him. Obama renominated Davila on January 5, 2011.Presidential Nomination no
PN21-112
, ''Edward J. Davila, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, vice Marilyn Hall Patel, retired,'' January 05, 2011 (112th Congress) That nomination was approved by the Judiciary Committee on February 3, and he was confirmed by the Senate on February 14, 2011 by a 93–0 vote. He received his commission on March 3, 2011. Davila presided over the

criminal trial Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail or ...

of former

Theranos Theranos Inc. () was an American privately held corporation that was touted as a breakthrough health technology company. Founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists a ...

CEO

Elizabeth Holmes Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American convicted fraudster and former biotechnology entrepreneur. In 2003, Holmes founded and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company that ...

and COO Sunny Balwani. Holmes was found guilty on four counts on

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

in January 2022 and sentenced to 11.25 years (135 months) in prison on November 18, 2022, while Balwani was convicted of 12 counts of fraud in July 2022 and sentenced to nearly 13 years (155 months) in prison on December 7, 2022.

Personal life

Davila is married to Mary Greenwood, who formerly served as

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

Public Defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

and is presiding justice of the

California Court of Appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.

for the Sixth District. They reside in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Davila, Edward J. 1952 births Living people 21st-century American judges California state court judges Hispanic and Latino American judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California People from Menlo Park, California People from Palo Alto, California Public defenders San Diego State University alumni Superior court judges in the United States United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni