Clinical Professor of Law
E-mail: japray@wisc.edu
Telephone: (608)263-7461
Office: Room 4318J, Law School
Education:
M.S.W., University of Georgia, 1980
J.D., University of Wisconsin Law School, 1986
B.A., Cornell College, 1971
Recently Taught Courses
854 Clinical Program: Crim. Appeals Project
854 Clinical Program: Crim. Appeals Project
854 Clinical Program: Innocence Project
854 Clinical Program: Wisconsin Innocence Project
860 Adv. Criminal Procedure: Rep. Criminal Apellant
915 SP Crim. J. Admin.: Claims of Innocence
Biography
Clinical Associate Professor John Pray has worked at the Law School's Frank J. Remington Center since 1986. Professor Pray is currently involved in two of the Remington Center's projects: the Innocence Project and the Criminal Appeals Project. In 1998, he co-founded, with Prof. Keith Findley, the Wisconsin Innocence Project. Since then, the Innocence Project has been responsible for the release of five prisoners, each of whom had been wrongly convicted of serious crimes such including murder and sexual assault. In addition, he has been involved in the Innocence Project's efforts to reform the criminal justice system by helping train police officers throughout the state, writing amici briefs in high profile cases, and proposing and drafting legislation in a number of key areas, including preservation and testing of DNA, eyewitness identification procedures, and mandatory videotaping recording of interrogations. Prof. Pray also co-directs the Criminal Appeals Project, in which he supervises students in their work on the direct appeal of criminal convictions. Through his work in the Project, Professor Pray has litigated many cases in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, leading to significant published decisions clarifying the rights of defendants in criminal cases. Prof. Pray is a 1971 graduate of Cornell College and a 1986 cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. In his former professional life he was been a musician, social worker and teacher. His outside interests include piano, tennis, soccer, and gardening.
