Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Court Cases, and Finding Redemption
by Hopwood, Shon
Law Man is an improbable-but-true memoir of redemption -- the
story of a young bank robber who became the greatest jailhouse lawyer in
American history, and who changed not just his own life, but the lives
of everyone around him. Shon Hopwood was a good kid
from a good Nebraskan family, a small-town basketball star whose parents
had started a local church. Few who knew him as a friendly teen would
have imagined that, shortly after returning home from the Navy, he’d be
adrift with few prospects and plotting to rob a bank. But rob he did,
committing five heists before being apprehended. Only twenty
three and potentially facing twelve years in Illinois’ Pekin Federal
Prison, Shon feared his life was already over. He’d shamed himself and
his loving family and friends, and a part of him wanted to die. He
wasn’t sure at first if he’d survive the prison gangs, but slowly
glimmers of hope appeared. He earned some respect on the prison
basketball court, received a steady flow of letters from hometown well
wishers, including a note from a special girl whom he’d thought too
beautiful to ever pay him notice – and, most crucially, he secured a job
in the prison law library. It was an assignment that would prove his salvation. Poring
over the library’s thick legal volumes, Shon discovered that he had a
knack for the law, and he soon became the go-to guy for inmates seeking
help. Then came a request to write a complex petition to the Supreme
Court – a high-wire act of jailhouse lawyering that had never before met
with success. By the time Shon walked out of Pekin Prison
he’d pulled off a series of legal miracles, earned the undying gratitude
of numerous inmates, won the woman of his dreams, and built a new life
for himself far greater than anything he could have imagined. A story that mixes moments of high-adrenaline with others of deep poignancy, Law Man
is a powerful reminder that even the worst mistakes can be redeemed
through faith, hard work and the love and support of others.
story of a young bank robber who became the greatest jailhouse lawyer in
American history, and who changed not just his own life, but the lives
of everyone around him. Shon Hopwood was a good kid
from a good Nebraskan family, a small-town basketball star whose parents
had started a local church. Few who knew him as a friendly teen would
have imagined that, shortly after returning home from the Navy, he’d be
adrift with few prospects and plotting to rob a bank. But rob he did,
committing five heists before being apprehended. Only twenty
three and potentially facing twelve years in Illinois’ Pekin Federal
Prison, Shon feared his life was already over. He’d shamed himself and
his loving family and friends, and a part of him wanted to die. He
wasn’t sure at first if he’d survive the prison gangs, but slowly
glimmers of hope appeared. He earned some respect on the prison
basketball court, received a steady flow of letters from hometown well
wishers, including a note from a special girl whom he’d thought too
beautiful to ever pay him notice – and, most crucially, he secured a job
in the prison law library. It was an assignment that would prove his salvation. Poring
over the library’s thick legal volumes, Shon discovered that he had a
knack for the law, and he soon became the go-to guy for inmates seeking
help. Then came a request to write a complex petition to the Supreme
Court – a high-wire act of jailhouse lawyering that had never before met
with success. By the time Shon walked out of Pekin Prison
he’d pulled off a series of legal miracles, earned the undying gratitude
of numerous inmates, won the woman of his dreams, and built a new life
for himself far greater than anything he could have imagined. A story that mixes moments of high-adrenaline with others of deep poignancy, Law Man
is a powerful reminder that even the worst mistakes can be redeemed
through faith, hard work and the love and support of others.