Temujin Kensu

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Temujin Kensu (born Fredrick Thomas Freeman; also known as John LaMar and Mickey Ford; May 23, 1963) is an American man who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1987 for the shooting of Scott Macklem in Port Huron, Michigan. He is serving life in prison without parole.

Early life and background
Freeman was born in Flint, Michigan, the son of Leonard Freeman and Monice Freeman. He graduated from Northern High School in 1981 and joined the U.S. Army, serving until 1982 after completing cannon training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He later adopted Buddhism and changed his name to Temujin Kensu while in prison.

The crime
On November 5, 1986, about 9 a.m., 20-year-old Scott Macklem was killed by a single shotgun blast in the parking lot of St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron. No one saw the shooter, but some witnesses later testified that a man in a car left the scene. A shotgun shell and ammunition box were found at the site, though the murder weapon was never traced. Macklem was the son of the mayor of Croswell, Michigan, and his family was well known in the area. Freeman was arrested on November 14, 1986, after Macklem’s fiancée Crystal Merrill identified him as a threat who had previously coerced her, and after a jailhouse informant claimed Freeman had confessed.

The trial
Freeman’s defense argued that he could not have committed the crime, as multiple witnesses placed him more than 400 miles away in Escanaba, Michigan, at times consistent with the shooting. The prosecution suggested that Freeman could have flown there and back on a chartered plane. The jury ultimately found him guilty on May 18, 1987, after initial 6–6 deliberations.

This verdict relied in part on the testimony of Merrill and on a jailhouse confession from Phillip Joplin, who later claimed he was pressured to testify. The defense presented witnesses who had seen Freeman in Escanaba; some evidence, including a photograph of a car’s license plate, was later questioned for reliability. Freeman received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Appeals and later developments
In 2007, Freeman (now Kensu) sought habeas corpus, and a court ruled that his continuing detention could be challenged because new alibi evidence had come to light and the informant had recanted. The ruling was overturned in 2012 due to procedural time limits. Kensu’s case drew attention as a possible miscarriage of justice, and several attempts at clemency or retrial followed. A 2010 parole and commutation proceeding resulted in a unanimous parole-board recommendation to commute the sentence, but Governor Jennifer Granholm denied clemency.

In 2016, Kensu won a civil damages case against the Michigan Department of Corrections for medical neglect, receiving $325,000. By 2019, his case was widely described as a miscarriage of justice by some public figures. In 2020, Michigan’s Conviction Integrity Unit concluded there was no new evidence supporting innocence claims. In 2022, the University of Michigan’s Innocence Clinic filed for executive clemency, which was denied. As of January 2025, Kensu remains imprisoned at the Macomb Correctional Facility in Lenox Township, Michigan.

Personal life
While in prison, Kensu married Denise Deringer in January 2001; she died of ovarian cancer in November 2012. He married Paula Randolph in November 2022.