Indianapolis attorney Richard Kammen has defended a lot of people facing the death penalty in his 40-year career, but now he has probably the most despicable client of all, Abd al-Rahim Mohammed Al-Nashiri, the accused terrorist charged in the 2000 USS Cole attack that killed 17 sailors and wounded several dozen others:
Many people and even some lawyers might recoil from having contact with someone associated with such evil. To Kammen, it's simply about seeing humans rather than crimes.
"I think you have to see people as more than the worst thing they've ever done," Kammen said. "I have seen people who have certainly been accused of doing horrific things, but who have shown tremendous courage and tremendous grace and really some sensitivity. I think people are more complex than how we want to simplify them."
I suppose it would take a defense attorney (or a left-over-from-the-1970s "love is all" simpleton) to actually live by the "Hitler had a puppy" philosophy. As a general rule, the idea that we're better than the worst thing we've ever done isn't an objectional approach. I certainly hope I'm seen that way, and I think most people do, too. But when the worst thing someone has done far outweighs any good they can possibly do, aren't we getting into near-pathological tolerance?
"Grace and sensitivity" from the Cole mastermind? Nah, don't think so.
