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Prosecutors say they have not yet made a decision on pursuing a new trial for Linehan, and she will be released from bail requirements that have kept her in Alaska since 2006, when she was indicted in the 1996 murder of her former fiance.
Linehan, 39, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2007 and locked up for more than two years before her conviction was thrown out by the Alaska Court of Appeals, which said some evidence in the trial should not have been allowed. Linehan was released on bail and the trial judge, Philip Volland, threw out her indictment altogether in December, forcing the state to consider re-indicting Linehan.
A "letter from the grave" written by Linehan's dead fiance, Kent Leppink, and implicating Linehan was a major focus in both the Appeals Court decision to dismiss the conviction and Volland's decision to dismiss the indictment, Volland wrote in his December order.
Leppink's letter was read to the grand jury that indicted Linehan and said, in part, "Take Mechele DOWN. Make sure she is prosecuted." Linehan's lawyer, Cynthia Strout, argued the letter was hearsay and corrupted the grand jury. In the end, Volland agreed.
Linehan was set to remain under her previous bail conditions -- which included that she stay in Alaska, among other requirements -- until today.
"They have no legal authority to continue to hold her on bail," Strout said Tuesday.
Prosecutors and the state Department of Law continue to discuss whether they will seek another indictment and present the case, again, to a grand jury, said Assistant Attorney General Paul Miovas.
"We're still in a holding pattern," Miovas said Tuesday. "There are a few legal issues that we need to work through before we can be at a point where that would even be possible."
Strout said she and Linehan hoped the state would drop the case.
"We're hopeful that the prosecutor is going to look and see that four different judges -- all three of the Court of Appeals judges and Judge Volland -- have ruled that the evidence that supposedly supported the indictment was unfair and inadmissible evidence," Strout said. "And so we hope that they're taking a really serious look at that."
In the meantime, Linehan's bail will be exonerated, Miovas said. That means her bail money will be returned, and she'll be released from bail conditions and free to travel home to Washington state if she wants, he said.
Strout said it was likely that her client would return to Washington soon after tying up some loose ends in Alaska. "Her daughter's down there and, obviously, her husband," Strout said.
A hearing in the case is set for this afternoon in Anchorage Superior Court.
Linehan was accused of conspiring with a former lover, John Carlin III, to kill Leppink, who was found shot to death near Hope in 1996. Ten years later, the authorities caught up with Linehan, a former Great Alaskan Bush Company stripper, in Olympia, where she had married a doctor and had a daughter. Prosecutors said Linehan hoped to gain as much as $1 million from Leppink's life insurance.
Carlin's son testified at Linehan's trial that he saw Carlin and Linehan cleaning a .44-caliber Desert Eagle handgun that police believed was used in the killing. Linehan's sister testified that Linehan told her Leppink "got what he deserved."
Carlin was convicted in a separate trial and later killed in prison.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
