Talk:Robert Hardy Cleland

Kensu Wrongful Conviction
Robert H Cleland engaged in gross misconduct as a St Clair County prosecutor, which is documented in a federal habeas and opinion by Honorable Judge Denise Paige Hood. The public court documentation clearly reflects Cleland contributed to Temujin Kensu’s wrongful conviction of murder, which Kensu is serving a life without parole sentence for since 1986. Cleland is now a federal judge. At trial, Temujin Kensu was known as Frederick Freeman and he was accused of murdering Scott Macklem (23 of Croswell, Michigan) with a single shotgun blast in a college parking lot at approximately 9 AM on November 5, 1986. Freeman/Kensu had nearly a dozen witnesses at trial who testified he was over 400 miles away in Michigan’s upper peninsula, and could not have committed the crime. Cleland was found to have put his own personal friend and pilot on the stand to say it was “possible” for Kensu to have committed the crime but produced not a single shred of evidence to support that outlandish theory. This in addition to perjured testimony by a jailhouse snitch, a hypnotized witness and other troubling issues to include known drug abuse by his own defense counsel which later led to his disbarment in Michigan were all contributing factors in Kensu’s wrongful conviction. Additionally, the St Clair County prosecution (including Cleland) refused to disclose a key primary alibi witness who was interviewed in 1986 and supported Kensu’s innocence. It was not known to the defense until obtained through a FOIA response in 2019- over 30 years after the conviction!

Kensu is represented by the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic, and there are eight additional innocence organizations signed onto his 2022 clemency application, which is pending Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s review at this time (July 2023). The current prosecutor in Saint Clair county where Temujin was wrongfully convicted is Michael Wendling, and he also refuses to admit there was a Wrongful Conviction. Michael is on the board of the National District Attorneys Association, (NDAA), which is also cause for concern as and puts into question the ethical obligations this Prosecutors Association/Organization. 2001:5B0:4BC3:8B08:D902:16A3:D2F4:552B (talk) 17:46, 11 July 2023 (UTC)