Temujin Kensu Michigan

INTRODUCTION 

Temujin Kensu, (formerly known as Frederick Freeman) was convicted of the murder of the son of a city mayor in 1987. He has substantive evidence establishing that he is completely innocent of any involvement in the crime; the evidence was ignored by the prosecution all along. Temujin has served 35 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.  

THE CRIME 

In November 1986, Scott Macklem, a drug dealing college student, and the son of the mayor of his hometown, Crosswell, Michigan, was shot and killed with a shotgun in the parking lot of the St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Michigan.  

THE INVESTIGATION 

There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, however a few students heard the gunshot and thought it was a car backfiring, and saw a car leave the parking lot at a regular rate of speed. There was no link between the vehicle described by these witnesses and Temujin.  During the investigation of the crime scene, a shotgun shell was found, as was a box of shotgun shells, found at an adjacent parking lot.  

The investigating detectives, under substantial pressure from the prosecutor, who was financially backed in his political career by Macklem's father, focused their investigation on Frederick Freeman, who had broken off a short-lived relationship with Macklem's fiancé Crystal Merrill (she only brought up his name after the third of four interviews, and after her sister Tracy had mentioned his name).  

Once they had the "jealous ex-boyfriend" scenario to focus on, the detectives completely ignored all other evidence and information, including calls coming into the State Police tip line. Notably, one such call was logged in, but the State Police were told by the detectives that they "don't need this information, we have our guy".  

Armed with the creative statements made by Crystal Merrill, which included claims that Temujin, who had dabbled in martial arts, had "secret Ninja skills including mind control" and used "secret Ninja listening devices" the detectives and prosecution chose to ignore multiple alibi witnesses that placed him 450 miles away from the scene hours before and after the crime, in Escanaba Michigan and Rock, Michigan, as well as the fact that Temujin and his primary alibi witness, Michelle Woodworth, both passed multiple polygraph tests.  The detectives also never bothered to have the shotgun shell from the crime scene tested for fingerprints or DNA, although the box of shells from the adjacent parking lot was found to have a fingerprint that was not Temujin's.  

Despite the lack of evidence and the wealth of evidence establishing that Temujin could not have had anything to do with the crime, he was arrested and charged with the crime.  

THE TRIAL 

The prosecutor presented the testimony of a "jailhouse informant", Philip Joplin, who, predictably, testified that Kensu had "confessed the crime to him in a jail cell" while withholding the evidence of the special favors that were given to the informant to purchase this testimony. These favors were eventually demonstrated through court documents.  The prosecution also presented the testimony of Crystal Merrill about Temujin's "magical Ninja skills" as well as the testimony of a witness who was purported to have been "hypnotized" into providing testimony that attempted to inculpate Kensu. Notably, the prosecutor later stated, "Without his testimony, we wouldn't have a case and could never retry the case". The admission of such "hypnotized" testimony is questionable at best. In this case, it was false.  

Temujin had at least ten solid and unimpeached alibi witnesses that placed him at least a 7- or 8-hour drive away from the crime scene. Moreover, the "jealous ex-boyfriend" scenario was completely debunked as Kensu had only dated Merrill for a brief time. In addition, he had been dating and living with Michelle Woodworth, and had actually been on a date with another woman, Beth Steir, until 3am on the morning of the crime, which occurred 450 miles away and 6 hours later, a period which renders it impossible for Temujin to have travelled that far in that time. The Police had interviewed Ms. Steir but failed to disclose the interview to the defense or to call her to testify to the truth. Instead, the prosecution presented witnesses who testified that someone who "matched the description of" Temujin was in the parking lot by 8am.  

Kensu was provided with a court-appointed lawyer named David Dean. During trial, Dean refused to permit Temujin to testify on his own behalf, and refused to present the testimony of Michelle Woodworth, despite being fully aware of the fact that she was the primary alibi witness.  

It was later discovered that Attorney Dean, who was incoherent and rambling during much of the trial, and whose notes were also filled with incoherent ramblings, was using cocaine during the entire trial, and was on probation from drug convictions during Kensu's trial. Attorney Dean was eventually disbarred following multiple drug convictions. 

AFTER THE TRIAL 

Following his inexplicable conviction, Temujin filed multiple appeals and pleadings trying to get the truth to be heard. During his investigations, and amid hundreds of hours in the law library, the statements of Beth Steir were uncovered. In addition, Philip Joplin, the "Jailhouse Informant" recanted his false testimony, and revealed the extent to which his testimony had been purchased and created by the prosecution.  

Temujin's appeals initially were not fruitful until eventually, Judge Denise Page Hood of the U.S. Federal District court Eastern District of Michigan, granted relief and issued a Writ of Habeas Corpus compelling his release or a retrial based upon substantive constitutional violations including the abrogation of his right to testify on his own behalf and the prosecutor knowingly presenting the false testimony from the jailhouse informant. This grant of relief was reversed on appeal from the prosecution based on claimed untimeliness of the filing of the petition in the court. This "untimeliness" was a result of time limits created in the "Anti-terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act" {AEDPA} of 1996, well after the original conviction in this case, and is not supposed to apply to cases such as Temujin’s which present substantive claims of actual innocence.  

As an interesting aside, Federal Judge Hood, in her Order granting relief, made a particular note of the act that prosecutor Robert Cleland had committed "egregious misconduct" by knowingly presenting testimony he knew to be false. This is conduct that has been specifically precluded and known to be improper since a US Supreme Court decision issued in 1959. The reason this is notable is that Robert Cleland, who wrongfully prosecuted Temujin whom he knew to be innocent, has since become a federal judge (with the continuing financial backing of Scott Macklem's father) and sits on the same bench as a colleague of Judge Hood. It is not often a judge will call out a colleague on the bench for misconduct, yet Judge Hood was honest enough to do so. Unfortunately, the decision has been reversed on the newly created technicality of "untimeliness".  

NEW EVIDENCE 

As this case has received substantial media attention, a retired Lieutenant from the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office, named Herbert Welser, was listening to a broadcast by a local ABC reporter and realized that the things that the reporter was saying did not jibe with his memory of what he had heard about the case round the department at the time the case was active. 

As a result, Welser, who had not worked directly on this case, spoke with A'miko Kensu, Temujin's then (and now late) wife who provided him with the factual information about the case. As a result of what was revealed to him, Welser, has worked pro bono on the case since that time, and has interviewed over one hundred people and obtained a substantial amount of evidence.  As a result of the widespread media attention and substantive information and evidence that has been revealed and unearthed, along with the tireless efforts of former Lt. Welser, The Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's Conviction Integrity Unit is currently in the process of reviewing the entire case.  [UPDATE: May 2022 - Please refer to the section "Current Status/Update]. 

OTHER COURT PROCEEDINGS  

In 2012, a Motion for Relief from Judgment was filed on the basis that it was discovered that the prosecutor had falsified the purported photo array from which the alleged eyewitnesses had purportedly identified Temujin. A hearing was held by Order of the State Supreme Court, but relief was denied. Following the exhaustion of the appeals in state court, in 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered that Temujin be permitted to submit a second Federal Habeas Corpus Petition. On consideration of the second Habeas Petition, and despite the order by the Sixth Circuit that Temujin had satisfied the procedural requirements to be permitted to submit the petition, the District Court, and a different judge than Judge Hood, (which is NOT the normal practice to change judges) held that he had not met the procedural hurdles and dismissed the petition. Permission to appeal this dismissal was inexplicably denied by the same court that ordered the lower court to hear it, and consideration by the full court was also denied. 

CONCLUSION 

Based upon all of the evidence, the established prosecutorial misconduct, the presentation of false testimony by the "Jailhouse informant", the recantation of that false testimony, the existence of multiple unimpeached alibi witnesses, the fact that the victim was a drug dealer, which was ignored by investigators, instead focusing on the theory that did not "sully the family name" of the primary financial political backer of prosecutor Robert Cleland whose ambitions took him to the federal bench, and the fact that Temujin Kensu could not possibly have travelled 450 miles in less than 8 hours, and the fact that his appointed lawyer was drug addled and on probation for drug offenses during the trial, the continuation of which resulted in him being subsequently disbarred it is unarguable that Temujin Kensu, nee Frederick Freeman, is completely innocent of any involvement in the murder of Scott Macklem.  

CURRENT STATUS / UPDATE 

The case was recently under review by the Michigan Attorney General's Conviction Integrity Unit. Despite the clear evidence establishing Temujin’s innocence, the Rules of the Conviction Integrity Unit require that such evidence of innocence be “new”. Based solely upon the fact that the overwhelming evidence proving Temujin is completely innocent is not considered “new”, the Rules of the Conviction Integrity Unit prohibit them from granting him relief. Accordingly, the Conviction Integrity Unit have now closed their file in Temujin’s case.  

In addition, evidence regarding this case can be seen in the You Tube documentary entitled "Justice Incarcerated - The Frederick Freeman Story". There has been hundreds of articles, podcasts, websites, and blog posts have been written and created across the United States and abroad.  

A contract to produce a mini-series or movie has been signed by Temujin, his fiancé and his private investigator, for which filming began in February of 2022.