A 23-year-old bank robber who stood before a federal judge 13 years ago asking for leniency and vowing to change did change – after a long sentence in federal prison. Now the two are conversing in public, on equal footing, about how long the sentence should have been.

The ex-con's remarkable ascent began in the prison law library, where he became not only a good jailhouse lawyer but also a successful Supreme Court practitioner.

Shon Hopwood wrote a book about his experience called, Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Court Cases, and Finding Redemption.

(READ the story from the NY Times)