Shawn Armbrust

Shawn Armbrust, Executive Director, has extensive experience in the innocence community. As an undergraduate at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Shawn was instrumental in achieving the 1999 death row exoneration of Anthony Porter. From 1999 to 2001, Shawn was the Case Coordinator at the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, screening requests for counsel and coordinating public education events and development efforts. Through the Center, she also worked with the Commission appointed by former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who stayed and ultimately commuted all capital sentences in the state. From 2001 to 2004, Shawn was a Public Interest Law Scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she graduated magna cum laude. As a Senior Articles and Notes Editor of the American Criminal Law Review, she wrote her note on the compensation of the wrongfully convicted. Prior to coming to the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Shawn clerked for the Honorable Gladys Kessler of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law, a member of the National Committee on the Right to Counsel, and on the Board of Directors of the Innocence Network.