Shon Hopwood: From Bank Robber to Law Professor to Conviction

Shon Hopwood is a former federal bank robber who taught himself law in prison, became a Georgetown Law professor and prominent criminal justice reform advocate, and in July 2025 was convicted by a D.C. Superior Court jury of assaulting his wife, obstructing justice, and violating a protective order. He was jailed after the verdict, placed on leave by Georgetown, and faces mandatory disbarment.¹

From Nebraska Bank Robber to Jailhouse Lawyer

Hopwood grew up in David City, Nebraska, and committed five armed bank robberies before he was caught. A federal court sentenced him to more than 12 years in prison.² He served nearly 11 years and was released in 2008.³

Inside, he taught himself law on a prison typewriter, working from law books without a computer or internet. Starting around 2000, he began drafting petitions for other inmates. Two of his petitions for certiorari were accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, something nearly unheard of for a non-lawyer.⁴

The best known was Fellers v. United States (2004), a Sixth Amendment case he drafted on his prison typewriter in 2002. Of more than 7,200 fee-waived petitions filed that year, only eight were granted. Fellers’ was one. Former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman called it “one of the best cert. petitions I have ever read” and argued the case on the condition that Hopwood stay involved. The Court ruled unanimously for Fellers, and the remand ultimately cut four years off his sentence.⁵⁴ Hopwood also won a case in the Sixth Circuit and secured resentencing for prisoners in other federal jurisdictions.⁶

Law School, D.C. Circuit Clerkship, and Georgetown

After release, Hopwood attended the University of Washington School of Law as a Gates Public Service Law Scholar on a full scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.³ In 2014 he began a clerkship with Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a position almost never held by someone with a federal criminal record.⁷

He joined Georgetown Law as a fellow in the Appellate Litigation Clinic and later became Associate Professor of Law, teaching criminal law and procedure, civil rights, and the constitutional rights of prisoners. His scholarship appeared in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the Fordham Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum.⁸⁹ He also co-founded Hopwood & Singhal PLLC, a Washington boutique focused on appellate litigation, sentencing mitigation, post-conviction relief, First Step Act cases, and clemency.¹⁰

Criminal Justice Reform and the First Step Act

Hopwood used his biography as a platform. He called the federal sentencing system “grossly unjust,” argued that long prison terms do not improve public safety, and pushed for presidential clemency for reformed nonviolent drug offenders.¹¹

He worked with Jared Kushner’s office on the First Step Act, the bipartisan reform law signed in December 2018, attended a prison reform summit hosted by President Trump, and sat in on roundtables about the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He told the president in one meeting: “I committed a violent crime but I am not a violent criminal and that people can change.”¹² He served on the board of FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums), taught reentry courses to federal judges through the Federal Judicial Center, and represented clemency clients including Matthew Charles, who had served 21 years of a 35-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense.¹¹

The 2023 Charges and 2025 Conviction

In October 2023, Hopwood was charged with misdemeanor assault against his wife, Ann Marie Hopwood, based on incidents in April and September 2023. Prosecutors said that during the September 21, 2023 incident, Hopwood assaulted his wife during a verbal argument in front of their children, repeatedly pushing and physically throwing her into the kitchen when she tried to get her phone and purse. Officers responding to the call found her hidden in a room of the couple’s D.C. home after Hopwood allegedly told them she was not there.¹³ A later multi-jurisdiction investigation uncovered what prosecutors described as a history of “chronic emotional and physical domestic abuse” going back years.¹

The case grew. The court entered a pretrial stay-away order, and prosecutors alleged Hopwood violated it repeatedly over several months, pressured his wife not to cooperate, and coached their children to lie about her whereabouts.¹⁴ When trial was set for June 3, 2024, prosecutors said he orchestrated a scheme to keep his wife and children out of the jurisdiction, causing his wife and daughter to miss their subpoenas. The indictment was superseded to add two counts of obstruction of justice and five counts of contempt.¹

Trial began June 10, 2025, in D.C. Superior Court before Judge Errol Arthur. Hopwood testified on June 30, maintaining that some of the physical incidents were de-escalation or self-defense and that the couple’s relationship was mutually volatile. Trial evidence included videos of the two screaming at each other, with both threatening to have the other jailed for abuse. From the stand, Hopwood echoed the line he had used years earlier with President Trump: “I committed a violent crime. But I am not a violent criminal.”¹⁵

On July 18, 2025, the jury found Hopwood, then 50, guilty on all counts: three counts of simple assault, five counts of contempt, and two counts of obstruction of justice.¹ Judge Arthur ordered him jailed pending sentencing, which was scheduled for September 18, 2025. Georgetown Law placed him on leave.¹⁶ D.C. Bar records show he was still in the D.C. Jail as of September 6, 2025, and had not yet been sentenced as of late December 2025.¹⁷

Law License and What Comes Next

The D.C. Court of Appeals suspended Hopwood’s law license on August 7, 2025. In a December 22, 2025 report, the Board on Professional Responsibility concluded that his two felony obstruction convictions constitute “moral turpitude per se” under D.C. law, which mandates disbarment. Because D.C. treats a defendant as guilty at verdict but not formally convicted until sentencing, the Board recommended that final discipline wait until the criminal case, including any direct appeals, is resolved, and that disbarment follow once it is. He is currently listed as a “Temporarily Suspended Member” of the D.C. Bar.¹⁷

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Jury Finds Georgetown Law Professor Guilty of Assaulting His Wife and Obstructing Justice
2
University of Chicago Law School. Shon Hopwood: Unnecessary Imprisonment and the Need for Sentencing Reform
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CBS News. Meet a Convicted Felon Who Became a Georgetown Law Professor
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Georgetown Law. Shon Hopwood: A Different Kind of Public Interest Lawyer
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The New York Times. From Prison to Law School to the Bar
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CBS News. 60 Minutes: Meet a Convicted Felon Who Became a Georgetown Law Professor
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FindLaw. Shon Hopwood: Felon, SCOTUS Practitioner, and D.C. Circuit Clerk
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Federalist Society. Shon R. Hopwood
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Yale Law Journal. The Effort to Reform the Federal Criminal Justice System
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Hopwood & Singhal PLLC. Hopwood & Singhal PLLC
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Georgetown Law. Professor Shon Hopwood on Clemency and Second Chances
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NPR. How Trump Went From Tough on Crime to Second Chance for Felons
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ABA Journal. Ex-Bank Robber and Georgetown Law Professor Found Guilty of Assaulting Wife
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NBC Washington. Georgetown Law Professor Who Served Prison Time Convicted of Assaulting Wife
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Washington City Paper. Shon Hopwood Domestic Violence Georgetown Trial
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Above the Law. Prominent Georgetown Law Professor Convicted in Domestic Violence Case
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D.C. Bar. Board on Professional Responsibility Report: Shon Hopwood