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/Shon R. Hopwood
Shon R. Hopwood

About Shon R. Hopwood

Shon R Hopwood’s unusual legal journey began not at law school, but federal prison, where he learned to write briefs for other prisoners. Two petitions for certiorari he prepared were later granted review by the United States Supreme Court, and the story of his legal success was the subject of articles in the New York Times, the Saturday Evening Post, and Above the Law. His work has been published in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties and Fordham Law Reviews. He is a consultant at Cockle Law Brief Printing Company, and a student and Gates Public Service Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law. In August of 2012, Crown/Random House will publish his memoir entitled “Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Cases and Finding Redemption.” Through a decade of letters, Shon convinced his kind and beautiful wife, Ann Marie, to marry him. He has one cute but incredibly ornery son, Mark Raymond, and a precious and beautiful baby girl, Grace. Shon enjoys liberty, the writing of the Apostle Paul, Amy Hempel, and Raymond Carver, the music of Radiohead, and watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. Follow me at: @shonhopwood
3 Dec, 2013

NFL Playoff Predictions

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00December 3rd, 2013|Tags: , |

Hey football fans, we’re entering the final quarter of the season and while the majority of the playoff seeds have already been spoken for despite Seattle being the only team to have clinched a berth, the sixth and final seed in both conferences are up for grabs between about dozen or so [...]

29 Oct, 2013

Conversations About the Law Series: Roy T. Englert Jr.

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00October 29th, 2013|Tags: , , , , |

Over the next couple of months, the CockleBur will provide a series of conversations about the law with a number of prominent legal journalists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and social justice advocates. I chose these particular people because I think they can bring a unique perspective about topics such as advocacy, legal [...]

5 Oct, 2013

Conversations About the Law Series: Josh Blackman

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00October 5th, 2013|Tags: , , , |

Over the next couple of months, the CockleBur will provide a series of conversations about the law with a number of prominent legal journalists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and social justice advocates. I chose these particular people because I think they can bring a unique perspective about topics such as advocacy, legal [...]

18 Sep, 2013

My Written Testimony to the U.S. Senate on Mandatory Minimum Sentences

2013-09-18T14:35:05-05:00September 18th, 2013|Tags: , , , , , |

Today, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 (you can read a primer on the JSVA here). The JSVA would allow federal judges to sentence criminal defendants below all mandatory minimum sentencing provisions. And the JSVA would prevent some of the worst injustices in federal [...]

17 Sep, 2013

A Couple Weeks of Media Craziness

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00September 17th, 2013|Tags: , , , , , , |

I kind of figured what would happen after Adam Liptak from the New York Times called to say he was going to write a follow-up piece to his 2010 article about my life and legal successes while in prison. After the article in the Times, my wife Annie and I had a crazy couple of weeks that [...]

27 Aug, 2013

Conversations About the Law Series: Kathryn Watts

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00August 27th, 2013|Tags: , , , , , |

Over the next three months, the CockleBur will provide a series of conversations about the law with a number of prominent legal journalists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and social justice advocates. I chose these particular people because I think they can bring a unique perspective about topics such as advocacy, legal education, [...]

28 Jul, 2013

Paying Billions to Warehouse those Addicted to Drugs

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00July 28th, 2013|Tags: , , , , , |

We are one of the few Western countries in the world that deals with drug addicts primarily through incarcerating them, and especially incarcerating those that support their habit by selling small quantities of drugs. Is this a wise, cost-effective, or even productive solution to the drug problem? And is it even a [...]

28 Jul, 2013

Conversations About the Law: A New Series from The CockleBur

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00July 28th, 2013|Tags: |

Over the next three months, the CockleBur will provide a series of conversations about the law from a number of prominent legal journalists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and social justice advocates. I chose these particular people because I think they can bring a unique perspective about topics such as advocacy, legal education, how the media [...]

7 Jul, 2013

What a Night of Fights! UFC 162

2019-03-18T18:47:41-05:00July 7th, 2013|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I don’t know where UFC 162 ranks on the best cards ever rankings, but I do know that it was, to use a phrase uttered during the broadcast, beautiful destruction. And it was definitely the best card of fights we’ve seen this year. Anderson Silva’s reign as the UFC’s unstoppable champ came [...]