Linehan murder conviction reversed by appellate court

Anchorage Daily Planet

The Alaska Court of Appeals today reversed Mechele Linehan’s first-degree murder conviction, saying the trial court should not have allowed “accusations from the grave” and the state’s case against the former dancer was circumstantial and “hardly overwhelming.”

Linehan had argued on appeal that admission of a letter written by the victim of the homicide, Kent Lippink, should not have been allowed at trial.

The letter was contained in a box to Leppink’s parents. He told his parents to open the letter only if he died under suspicious circumstances. It said if anything happened to him, she was probably responsible.

Second, she contended the court should not have allowed testimony that she admired and wanted to emulate “the evil and manipulative protagonist of the move ‘The Last Seduction.‘ “

And third, she argued the trial judge should not have allowed the state to tell the jury she worked as an exotic dancer.

The court sided with Linehan on the first two claims, but rejected the third.

Lippink’s body was found May 2, 1996. He had been shot to death outside of Hope and investigators speculated he had been lured there by John Carlin, and killed.

Troopers said Linehan was Carlin’s accomplice and never accused her of killing Lippink, but rather claimed she had solicted the murder and helped Carlin write a note that led Lippink to Hope. Carlin later was convicted of conspiring with Linehan in the murder. He was found beaten to death in a cell at Spring Creek Correctional Center at Seward.

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