Gretchen Shappert


Gretchen C. F. Shappert was United States Attorney for the western district of North Carolina from 2004-2009.
Shappert stressed tough prosecution of drug offenders while in office. Shappert also served as chair of the Justice Department's subcommittee on Native American issues. Shappert also opposed retroactively lessening prison sentences related to crack-cocaine.
Shappert passed the North Carolina bar in 1980. She graduated from Duke University in 1977, and from Washington and Lee Law School. She was in private practice and was an assistant district attorney and an assistant public defender in Charlotte before becoming a federal prosecutor.
Shappert resigned as U.S. Attorney in March 2009., she is serving as the U.S. Attorney for
the Virgin Islands. In addition to prosecuting serious drug offenses, Shappert is also keenly interested in anti-terrorism efforts. Shappert recently published an article about Attorney General Amos Akerman's leadership in prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan immediately after the civil war in what Shappert describes as "the worst outbreak of domestic violence in American history to date."SourcesShappert, Gretchen C. F., "Fighting Domestic Terrorism and Creating the Department of Justice: The Extraordinary Leadership of Attorney General Amos T. Akerman." DOJ Journal of Federal Law and Practice, January 2020/ref>*