NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE FACULTY

Richard Kammen is a criminal defense lawyer with his office in Indianapolis, Indiana. He concentrates his practice in serious felonies, white-collar defense, complex crimes and death penalty defense. He is of Counsel to the law firm of Kammen and Moudy.  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.

During his professional career, Mr. Kammen has served as a public defender in the Marion County Courts on two occasions, 1972-1974 and 1978-1979.

Mr. Kammen has represented clients charged with offenses ranging in seriousness from felony drunk driving to Racketeering and Capital Murder.

Mr. Kammen has defended over three hundred homicide cases including approximately forty death penalty cases in both State and Federal courts. No client that Mr. Kammen has represented at trial has been sentenced to death.  Mr. Kammen has been trial counsel on six State death penalty cases, including State of Indiana v. Charles Smith, a retrial of a reversed death penalty conviction in which the defendant was found not guilty. He has been appointed by United States District Judges to represent capitally charged defendants throughout the United States including such cases as United States v. Raymond Cheely (Government’s request for death penalty dismissed as improper) United States v. Reginald Brown (Government’s request for death penalty and underlying Murder charges dismissed because the defendant is innocent) , United States v. Joe Minerd, in which the defendant, convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her three year old with a bomb received a life sentence. He was appointed “learned counsel” in United States v. Donnell Young, which was, until it was resolved by a plea the longest Federal capital case pending in the United States..  Mr. Kammen was appointed as “learned counsel” in the Federal capital case, United States v. Timothy O’Reilly. Mr. O’Reilly received a life sentence after a trial lasting three months. He was lead counsel on the defense team that represented David Camm who 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, Mr. 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.

Mr. Kammen is the recipient of the Pro Bono Award given by the Indiana Bar Association and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indiana Public Defender Council.