[2] He was born on 5 November 1893 in Barbacena, Minas Gerais,[3][4] to Príamo Cavalcanti Sobral Pinto, a station master working for the Central do Brasil railroad in the town, and his wife Idalina.

[3] Although he started his career as a lawyer in the area of Private Law, he ended up becoming notable as a brilliant criminalist defending the politically persecuted.

[5] In the case of the German Harry Berger, who had also been arrested and severely tortured after the same uprising, Sobral Pinto demanded that the government apply Article 14 of the Animal Protection Act to the prisoner, a very unusual fact.

In 1984, he caused a sensation by participating in the historic "Comício da Candelária" (Candelaria Assembly, another political demonstration took place in 1984 in front of the Candelária Church in Rio de Janeiro, calling for the return of democracy), and defending the re-establishment of direct elections for the presidency of the Republic, reading the first article of the Federal Constitution of Brazil (1988), as a tribute to his work for democracy, João Nogueira and Paulo César Pinheiro composed the song "Vovô Sobral" ("Granpa Sobral") in his honor, released on the 1984 album "Pelas Terras do Pau-Brasil" ("Through the lands of Redwoods").

[11] In 2013, the documentary Sobral – The Man Who Didn't Have Price was released, which shows the biography of the jurist in the trajectory of the defense of human rights in Brazil, directed by Paula Fiuza.