In 1987 Scott Macklem was shot and killed in the parking lot of St. Clair Community College. Temujin Kensu was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
After a prosecutor at trial portrayed Kensu as a cunning ninja who was able to charter a jet to fly across the country, shoot the victim, and return home without a trace, Kensu earned the nickname “ninja killer.”
Since his arrest, he has claimed he had nothing to do with the murder. Since his conviction, detectives and his attorneys have found other information they say proves his innocence, including testimony from a jailhouse informant who recanted and eyewitnesses who did not testify at the court. court case.
High-profile defenders of Kensu’s case have included the late Senator Carl Levin of Michigan. After exhausting all his appeals, Kensu, now 58, has been denied pardon three times. His best hope of having his conviction overturned was through the SDI.
The new evidence is defined more broadly in a copy of Kensu’s CIU Request for Review as something that “was not known to the jury that returned the verdict of guilty against the prisoner.”
The attorney general’s spokesman said the unit is “limited in scope and jurisdiction” in responding to inquiries about standards of proof.
