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Todd Williams, 53, is a North Carolina native born in Winston-Salem. He attended U.N.C. at Chapel Hill and  graduated in 1992 with a B.A. in English. After college, Todd taught English as a Second Language and adult basic skills to textile workers, immigrants, and the homeless in central North Carolina.  Todd's experience before law school led him to pursue a career in social justice through public service law and later legal internships at the Southern Center for Human Rights and a civil rights law firm led Todd to focus on criminal justice. 

Todd worked for nearly 15 years as both a public and capital defender and represented indigent defendants of all ages at every level in our justice system from misdemeanors to murder. Prior to 2014, five young working-class African American men had been convicted on bad, undisclosed evidence in Buncombe County and had served years in prison for crimes they did not commit. The integrity of the justice system was at an ebb, and in early 2014 Todd launched a trailblazing campaign for D.A. that proudly focused both on his service to immigrants and the unhoused and his broad experience in criminal law as a public defender in N.C. courts. Todd claimed that a prosecutor was morally required to right past wrongful convictions and to expand prosecutorial discretion to enhance pathways to healing and rehabilitation for both justice-involved persons and victims of crime.

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Todd resoundingly defeated a 24-year incumbent and took office on January 1, 2015. D.A. Williams was re-elected in 2018 and again in 2022.

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D.A. Williams has resolved heinous crimes while concurrently working to reverse questionable past convictions including convictions of the young men who were exonerated (see above) and to remove two men from N.C.’s death row. D.A. Williams was instrumental in creating wraparound services for victims through the Child Advocacy and Family Justice Centers, and services for offenders including the Justice Resource Center, the Adult Drug, and Juvenile Misdemeanor Diversion Programs, Veterans’ Treatment Court, expungement clinics and amnesty days, all focused on offering opportunities to non-violent offenders to regain employability and recovery without the stigma of a conviction. D.A. Williams recommended investigation of the Buncombe County Manager for corruption and called for an end to self-investigation of potential criminal behavior by law enforcement agencies. Currently, D.A. Williams is proud to serve as a Commissioner on the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, and is an active participant in national justice networks sponsored by the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution, and Fair and Just Prosecution.    

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D.A. Williams is a N.C. State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Criminal Law and lives in Asheville with his wife, a trauma focused mental health counselor, and family.

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