Shook Team Named Am Law Litigation Daily ‘Runner-Up’ Litigator of the Week for Overturned Murder Conviction

Am Law Litigation Daily featured a Shook team as a “Runner-Up” for Litigator of the Week, highlighting the group’s role in overturning a 35-year-old murder conviction. The Eleventh Circuit ruled that the conviction was unconstitutional because the prosecution engaged in race discrimination during jury selection.

“Pro bono lawyers at Baker & Hostetler, Mayer Brown and Shook, Hardy & Bacon represented Michael Sockwell, who has spent 25 years on Alabama’s death row, in a successful habeas petition at the Eleventh Circuit. In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court held that prosecutors ‘repeatedly and purposefully struck Black jurors, making only dubious and capricious excuses,’ violating Sockwell’s 14th Amendment rights,” wrote Am Law Litigation Daily. 

Shook Partners Michael Rayfield, Melissa Madsen, Matt Wolfe and Scott Chesin played a lead role in representing Sockwell throughout the appeal, including briefing the case and conducting oral arguments. 

The case is Sockwell v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, No. 23-13321 (11th Cir., June 30, 2025).