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Draft:Temujin Kensu

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Temujin Kensu, born Frederick Thomas Freeman on May 23, 1963,[1][a] was convicted of first-degree murder in 1987 for the shooting of Scott Macklem and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The crime

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On November 5, 1986 at about 9 a.m., Scott Macklem, the 20-year old son of the mayor of Croswell, Michigan, was killed by a single shotgun round while he was in the parking lot of St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, where he was a student. The police found a shotgun shell and ammunition box at the site but the murder weapon has never been traced.[2]

Arrest and trial

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The police were alerted to Freeman as a suspect by Crystal Merrill, who was then Macklem's fiancée but had had a prior relationship with Freeman in May and June that year.[2] He was arrested on November 14, 1986 and arraigned at St. Clair County District Court.[3]

Merrill was the first prosecution witness, and testified that Freeman had threatened to kill her and Macklem if she didn't stop seeing Macklem. She alleged that Freeman had raped her on their first date.[4][5][6] Another witness, Phillip Joplin, said that Freeman had confessed to the murder while they shared a courtroom holding cell.[4][7] Joplin further stated that Freeman wasn't worried about the trial because he had "constructed an airtight alibi".[2]

That alibi was indeed strong. The defense called nine witnesses, many with no connection to Freeman, who had seen him in and around Escanaba, a town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that was over 400 miles from Port Huron.[8] However, while some witnesses had seen Freeman before 3 a.m. on the day of the murder and others had seen him that afternoon, there appeared to be a gap in sightings. The prosecutor, Robert Cleland, was therefore able to argue that Freeman could have chartered a private aircraft to take him to Port Huron by 9 a.m. and then return to Escanaba after the shooting. No evidence was provided that he had actually done this, although one of the eyewitnesses who were said to have seen the killer identified Freeman from photographs later shown to have been altered for the trial.[9] That witness had been hypnotized to enhance his memory of what he saw.[2]

The prosecution described Freeman as a jealous man with a violent past that included a pending assault charge and a conviction for issuing bad checks.[5][6] His motive for murder was alleged to be to control Merrill. During the trial, martial arts weapons were shown and this led to him being described in the press as the "ninja killer", despite the fact that the murder weapon was a 12-gauge shotgun and the fingerprint on the ammunition box found at the scene did not match Freeman's.[2][10]

When the jury retired to consider their decision, they initially split 6-6 but after four more votes they reached a unanimous guilty verdict on May 18, 1987. One juror commented to the press that "his alibi was too perfect".[11] Freeman was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.[2][8]

Appeal case

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Around the time of the murder, Freeman was living with his pregnant girlfriend Michelle Woodworth at a rented farmhouse in Rock, 20 miles north of Escanaba.[5] When police arrived there to attempt to arrest him, she told them that they had been at home together on November 5, including at the precise time of the murder, and had gone with him to Escanaba later that day where others had seen them. However, the court appointed lawyer, David Dean, did not call her as a defense witness and hence the jury did not hear this part of Freeman's alibi.[2]

Ralph Simpson was appointed by Michigan's State Appellate Defender's Office to act as appeal attorney for Freeman and an appeal was first filed in the summer of 1987. The case he built took several years to proceed through the courts but was assisted when information supplied by a private investigator, Allen Woodside, became available. In particular, Woodside was instrumental in getting Joplin to sign an affidavit that he had received inducements to give his testimony, namely that he would not be returned to prison but would serve the remainder of his term in community placement and that he would be given money there.[6][7] Woodside obtained another affidavit, from Woodworth, that she had been threatened by police that if she persisted to give her alibi evidence in court she would be committing perjury and might lose custody of her child. In 1993, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, despite ruling that Freeman's defense attorney should have protested more vigorously about the inclusion of all his "prior bad acts". The Michigan Supreme Court later refused to hear the case.[6]

Aftermath

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In prison, Freeman converted to Buddhism and changed his name to Temujin Kensu.[6][8]

In 1995 Allen Woodside alerted Bill Proctor to the case and shared documents with him. Proctor was an experienced investigative reporter with the Detroit television station WXYZ-TV and visited Kensu in the Macomb Correctional Facility. Over the next year, he produced a series of five news segments that were broadcast on Channel 7 Action News. Proctor's reports included an interview with Phillip Joplin in which Joplin recanted his trial testimony.[2][10] His 1990 affidavit had stated that inducements were involved but had not admitted that the testimony was actually untrue.[7]

After Proctor's broadcasts, Kensu's case was taken up by Jonathan Maire, an attorney in Lansing, the Michigan state capital. By 2004 he had amassed sufficient new evidence, including an alternative suspect and motive for the murder, to file a second appeal in the St. Clair County Circuit Court. Judge James Adair ruled that the matters raised did not warrant a retrial or even a hearing to consider the new evidence. His decision was upheld by the Michigan Court of Appeals in August 2005 and the Supreme Court declined the case in January 2006.[6]

In 2007, in an attempt to force the Michigan state legal system to again hear his case, Kensu filed for habeas corpus. This is a way to challenge the reasons for a person's continuing imprisonment and, if successful, to bring that person before a court. His petition went for consideration by Judge Denise Page Hood.[5] In her written decision, Judge Hood allowed the petition on the grounds that Woodward had not been called to give additional alibi evidence and that in relation to Joplin, prosecutors "should have known his testimony was untruthful".[2] The state attorney general filed an appeal against this decision and it was overturned in 2012 by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, whose ruling was based on the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which places time limits on habeas corpus relief, and that the new evidence was not sufficient to allow an exception.[9][12][13]

In 2016, Kensu successfully sued the Michigan Department of Corrections over the way his medical needs had been ignored and was awarded a total of $325,000 in compensatory and punitive damages after a jury found in his favour.[8][14]

The St. Clair County Prosecutor at that time, Mike Wendling, believed that Kensu was manipulating the judicial system by his continuous appeals, since none of his arguments were new, and that the victim's family was being forgotten.[15]

By 2019, Kensu's case had attracted widespread attention and was being called a miscarriage of justice. Thomas E. Brennan, former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court stated "Reading the trial transcript as an outsider, you just had this smell of the whole thing. I don’t see how they could convict the guy. Had I been the trial judge, I hope I would have had the guts to throw the case out.” Carl Levin, a US state senator for Michigan from 1979 to 2015, said “I have personally reviewed the documents from the various court cases. As a lawyer, I believe the evidence of innocence is compelling.” Another state senator, Stephanie Chang, said “It is atrocious that this kind of miscarriage of justice could take place in our state, leaving an innocent individual in prison for multiple decades.”[8]

In 2020, the Conviction Integrity Unit[16] set up by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel considered Kensu's case and decided that there was “no new evidence that supports the factual innocence claim”.[17] This decision was strongly condemned by senator Chang and two members of congress, Andy Levin and Rashida Tlaib, who wrote "our point of view ... is based on the fact that Kensu could not have committed and did not in fact commit the crime for which the state is taking away the entire rest of his life, now 35 years on."[18]

In June 2022, the Innocence Clinic, part of the University of Michigan Law School, submitted an application for executive clemency to Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan.[19] This was turned down, as had been two previous pleas.[20]

As of January 2025, Kensu was still in prison at the Macomb Correctional Facility in Lenox Township, Michigan.[21]

References

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Notes

  1. ^ Sources prior to 1990 use the surname Freeman, while later sources use both Freeman and Kensu. This biography uses Freeman when describing events before 1995 and Kensu for later events.

References

  1. ^ Michigan Department of Corrections. "Biographical information: Temujin Kensu". Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rappleye, Hannah (2021-03-21). "Is Temujin Kensu a 'ninja killer' or wrongfully convicted man?". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  3. ^ Olsen, Chip (1986-11-15). "Man arrested in Troy after 10-day manhunt". The Daily Press. Escanaba, Michigan. p. 1 – via newspaperarchive.com.
  4. ^ a b "Witness accuses suspect who lived in Escanaba". The Daily Press. Escanaba, Michigan. 1987-05-01. p. 1 – via newspaperarchive.com.
  5. ^ a b c d Svoboda, Sandra (2007-08-01). "Reasonable doubt: Part I". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Svoboda, Sandra (2007-08-08). "Reasonable doubt: Part II". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  7. ^ a b c Chaudry, Rabia (2020-04-20). "State v. Fred Freeman - Episode 3 - Unjust Stewards" (PDF). Retrieved 2025-01-03.
  8. ^ a b c d e Finley, Nolan (2019-12-26). "Finley: Decades in prison for murder he couldn't have committed". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  9. ^ a b LeBlanc, Beth (2014-03-14). "Defense lawyer testifies about trial". Times Herald. Port Huron. p. 1.
  10. ^ a b Lussenhop, Jessica (2015-12-21). "TV reporter spends retirement investigating brutal murder". BBC News. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  11. ^ Brown, John F. (1987-05-19). "Freeman jury verdict took 5 votes". The Times Herald. Port Huron. p. 3 – via newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Shepard, Liz (2012-05-19). "Conviction against Temujin Kensu stands in 1986 slaying". Times Herald. Port Huron. p. 1.
  13. ^ Proctor, Bill (2024-03-24). "Trump is not the victim in our broken legal system". Detroit Free Press.
  14. ^ "Michigan Drops Appeal In Major $325,000 Verdict For Prisoner". CBS Detroit. 2017-03-11. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  15. ^ Smith, Sydney (2016-10-01). "Group wants Snyder to reopen 1987 Port Huron murder case". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  16. ^ Associated Press (April 10, 2020). "Michigan Attorney General Launches Conviction Integrity Unit". WKAR. Retrieved 2025-01-01.
  17. ^ Rappleye, Hannah (2022-05-19). "Michigan AG declines to pursue release of man known as 'ninja killer'". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  18. ^ Bloch, Jim (2022-06-01). "U.S. Congressional reps, state senator back Temujin Kensu's bid for clemency". bwhlarchives.com. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
  19. ^ "Temujin Kensu". University of Michigan Law School. Retrieved 2025-01-01.
  20. ^ Rappleye, Hannah (2023-12-24). "Aviation experts dispute plane theory used to convict Michigan's 'ninja killer'". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  21. ^ "Temujin Kensu #189355". neweraincj.org. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
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