Member Expert Luncheon with Rick Kammen

Our speaker for May 1

Rick Kammen

During his career Rick Kammen was a criminal defense lawyer with his office 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. Rick has defended over two 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.  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. Mr. Kammen and other civilian counsel withdrew from the case after the judge refused to address intrusions into the attorney client relationship.

A frequent speaker and lecturer on criminal defense issues, Rick now provides entertaining and informative presentations about his recently published book, Tortured Justice Guantanamo Bay.Tortured Justice: Guantanamo is inspired by Mr. Kammen's work at GTMO. And as Kammen often says, quoting Jodi Picoult, "Just because it's fiction does not mean it isn't true."Rick has completed a second book, Tortured Justice: South Carolina which will be published in May of 2024.