About

During his career, Richard Kammen defended over 200 homicide cases—including approximately 40 death penalty cases—in both State and Federal courts. No client represented by Mr. Kammen was ever sentenced to death.

He was lead counsel on the defense team that represented David Camm, a former state trooper in Indiana. Camm was exonerated and freed by acquittal, after being imprisoned for thirteen years and two prior convictions of killing his wife and two children.

Until October of 2017, Kammen served as “Learned Counsel” in United States v. Abdul Rahim Al-Nashiri, who is charged before a Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Al-Nashiri is alleged to have been a central figure in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 in Aden, Yemen. This is likely to be the first capital military commission. Mr. Kammen and other Civilian counsel withdrew from the case after the Commission refused to address possible intrusions into the attorney-client relationship.

A frequent speaker and lecturer on criminal defense issues, Mr. Kammen has spoken in almost every state and federal circuit.  He has been a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College since 1982 and the Trial Lawyers College since 2001.

Richard's first book, Tortured Justice: Guantanamo Bay has recently been published. He has completed a second, Tortured Justice: South Carolina, and is working on a third, Tortured Justice: Ohio.

During his career, Richard Kammen was a criminal defense lawyer based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

He graduated from Ripon College cum laude in 1968 and New York University School of Law in 1971. Admitted to the Bar in 1971, he began his practice after service in the United States Army.