On Friday, October 1, 2004, the featured program of the annual dinner of the University of Wisconsin's Bascom Hill Society was the Law School's Wisconsin Innocence Project. Guest speakers at the event were co-directors of the project, UW Law Professors Keith Findley and John Pray, along with Christopher Ochoa 2L, the first person to be freed by the Innocence Project.

The presentations by the three Innocence Project representatives was accorded a standing ovation by the audience of Bascom Hill Society members.

Membership in the Bascom Hill Society is the University's way of recognizing donors who contribute at the highest level. The group gathers once a year for camaraderie and the dinner program as well as a football game the following day.

Pray, Findley and Ochoa spoke to the group about the Innocence Project's five years of providing legal assistance to prison inmates who have provable claims of innocence. Approximately UW Law 20 students are enrolled in the program, working under the supervision of attorney/professors of the Law School's Frank J. Remington Center.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project has gained nationwide attention for its work in freeing Texas-native Chris Ochoa (now working with the project as a second-year law student) and Wisconsinite Steven Avery, who was serving an 18-year sentence when eyewitnesses verified that he was somewhere else when the crime was committed.

Submitted by on October 7, 2004

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