The University of Wisconsin Law School graduated 60 students on May 12, 2006. Students, families, and other well-wishers participated in a busy sequence of events, attending the Law School’s hooding ceremony at Madison’s Alliant Energy Center followed by the UW-Madison Commencement for professional schools at the Kohl Center.

In addition to the 230 J.D. degrees of the Class of 2006, the Law School granted graduate degrees of M.L.I.,  LL.M., and S.J.D.

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, an alumna of the Law School (Class of 1989) gave the keynote address for the Law School’s 2 p.m. ceremony, and Professor Gordon Smith was the faculty speaker.

The three student speakers were Timothy Cruz, Lola Velazquez-Aguilu, and Christopher Ochoa; master of ceremonies was Nina McIntyre. All four students were elected by their classmates to serve in these positions of honor on Graduation Day.

The traditionally bustling event was even busier this year, as student speaker Christopher Ochoa was followed by numerous cameras and media organizations covering the nationally publicized story of his relationship to the Wisconsin Innocence Project – first, as the first person exonerated after the Innocence Project proved him innocent of a wrongful conviction, and second, as a new graduate of the Law School that was responsible for securing his freedom.

Among the major national and local stories featuring Ochoa’s graduation was the ABC Nightly News of that same afternoon, Friday, May 12, which featured Ochoa as Person of the Week. See the ABC Web site at

www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/PersonOfWeek/story?id=1955889&page=1

for the transcript, and

http://www.news.wisc.edu/12591.html 

for an interview with Ochoa and Professor John Pray of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

Submitted by on June 9, 2006

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