LANSING, MI – Three Democratic state lawmakers this week released a joint statement claiming the innocence of a man currently serving a life sentence for a murder many believe he did not commit.
Temujin Kensu – who turned 59 years old Monday, May 23 – is serving life in prison for the 1986 murder of 20-year-old Scott Macklem in the parking lot of St. Clair Community College in Port Huron.
Despite claims of innocence from Kensu himself as well as many innocence advocate groups, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced this month that she is declining to pursue Kensu’s release with her Conviction Integrity Unit.
Nessel, a Democrat, does “remarkable work day-in and day-out,” according to Congressman Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township), Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Senator Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit). But the AG reached the wrong outcome in declining to challenge Kensu’s conviction, the lawmakers said in a Wednesday, May 25, statement.
“As longtime advocates for social justice, we believe that we must do more for Temujin Kensu and all wrongfully imprisoned individuals across the globe,” the statement reads in part. “In Kensu’s case, all available options for relief must be pursued.”
Kensu has insisted he was hundreds of miles away in the Upper Peninsula when Macklem was killed and that there was no evidence at the crime scene that connected him to the murder.
Prosecutors said Kensu killed Macklem because he was jealous of Macklem dating an ex-girlfriend, according to past MLive reports.
But Kensu claims he was 400 miles away, in an unincorporated village called Rock in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He said he had no means of transportation, and witnesses at the trial have corroborated his claim.
“(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,” the lawmakers said. “And the continued resistance to this fact of actual innocence by current and former local law enforcement officials does nothing to change the fact itself.”
A witness said at the trial that he saw Kensu drive away from the crime scene. It was later found out that the witness was hypnotized and gave the wrong license plate.
The case caught the attention of many innocence groups, including the Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan. They also believe Kensu is innocent and should be released.
Another group, Proving Innocence, has been advocating for Kensu’s release.
“I applaud Andy, Stephanie and Rashida who have the integrity and courage to speak out on the incredibly misguided decision of the Attorney General that would condemn a wholly innocent man to ‘death by incarceration,’” said Proving Innocence Vice President David Sanders in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal.
Kensu began seeking clemency over the summer after he contracted COVID-19 while at the Macomb Correctional Facility in Macomb County. Health records attached to his appeal for clemency outlined underlying conditions, such as chronic lung disease, an autoimmune disease, and a brain tumor.
But in January 2021, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would deny Kensu’s plea for clemency. His last hope was for the Conviction Integrity Unit, but the office failed to do its job, according to B. David Sanders, the Vice President of Proving Innocence.
“The thing that we’re very concerned about is that this state Conviction Integrity Unit is supposed to be an integrity unit, and I stress integrity,” Sanders told the Journal Thursday, May 19. “It’s supposed to determine, ‘Does the conviction have integrity?’ And in fact, it doesn’t at all.”
The Michigan AG’s CIU was launched in 2019. Its aim is to investigate claims of innocence to determine whether there is clear and convincing new evidence that the convicted defendant was not the person who committed the crime they were convicted of.
Paula Kensu, Temujin’s fiancée, said her fiancé can resubmit his application for clemency Saturday, May 28. Whitmer denied a request submitted May 28, 2020, and applications can be submitted every two years.
Paula Kensu called the lawmakers’ statement “so amazing,” and said it was “just the boost I think Temujin needed to see today given he spent his 59th birthday behind bars.”
“I hope our Governor now sees it and takes swift action to exonerate!!!” she said in an email.
Read more at The Flint Journal:
Fiancée of Temujin Kensu upset after Michigan AG opts not to challenge 1986 murder conviction
Michigan AG won’t challenge Temujin Kensu conviction in 1986 Port Huron murder
Michigan prisoner with coronavirus deserves clemency, says Innocence Clinic
Burton man convicted of Port Huron killing in 1986 asks Gov. Snyder for pardon
After more than 20 years in prison, Temujin Kensu dreams of release
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