Sharpe graduated from the University at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971 and Cornell Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1974.
He served as a senior assistant district attorney for Broome County, New York, from 1974 to 1981.
He served as an adjunct professor at Binghamton University and Broome Community College, from 1978 to 1982.
He served as a United States magistrate judge for the Northern District of New York, from 1997 to 2004.
[1] On April 28, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Sharpe to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, to a seat vacated by Judge Thomas James McAvoy.