Diane Hammons

Bio

A. Diane Hammons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Justice Studies, and Global Security at Northeastern State University. She is also a District Judge for the Quapaw Nation of Oklahoma, and is a federal contractor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Hammons has focused primarily on tribal law and criminal law issues throughout her career. She served as Attorney General of the Cherokee Nation from July 2006 January 2012. Prior to that she worked as General Counsel, Director of the Justice Department, Prosecutor, and Public Defender in her 17 year career at the Nation. Previously, she was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma in the criminal division of that office, doing primarily death penaltywork. During her tenure at the Oklahoma Attorney Generals office, she was responsible for dozens of published cases from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the Oklahoma federalc ourts, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court, where she argued and won the case of Romano v. Oklahoma in 1994.