That "letter from the grave" became the center of discussion Thursday when the Alaska Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case of Mechele Linehan, who is hoping to overturn her conviction for the 1996 murder of Leppink, a former fiance.
Two years ago, a jury found the former stripper guilty of conspiring to kill the 36-year-old commercial fisherman. Prosecutors say Linehan, then 23, lured another man who was in love with her, John Carlin, to kill Leppink under the belief she would get $1 million in life insurance money. Carlin was convicted separately and was later killed in prison.
In his letter, Leppink wrote to his parents that if he should end up dead, "to take Mechele DOWN. Make sure she is prosecuted."
One of Linehan's appeals attorneys, Jeff Feldman, argued to the three judges that his client deserves another trial because the trial judge, Superior Court Judge Philip Volland, erred in allowing the letter to be read by jurors. He cited several legal reasons, including that the document amounted to testimony and thus violated Linehan's constitutional right to confront her accuser.
During the trial, Volland told jurors that they were to read the letter merely as an indication of how Leppink was feeling shortly before his death. But Feldman argued that despite whatever directions are given to a jury, a murder victim's accusation is very powerful and it is unrealistic to believe that a jury can refrain from considering that emotionally explosive material.
State attorney Diane Wendlandt argued the letter was valid evidence showing Leppink feared Linehan.
Appeals Chief Judge Robert Coats, on the appeals court since its inception in 1980, volleyed with Wendlandt on the matter. He asked her how she justified it legally and whether it amounted to testimony.
"It was not testimonial," Wendlandt said. "It was a simple accusation. ..."
Responded Coats: "But he's basically saying ... 'If something happens to me, I want you to take these people down. I want you to prosecute them, and by the way visit Mechele in jail' and all this sort of stuff. It's pretty obvious, isn't it, that he's intending for them to take this information to the police? ...Wouldn't this qualify as testimonial?"
Wendlandt said the letter was used to point police in a direction; it was not used in the trial to have Leppink point the finger at Linehan.
FILM'S ROLE DEBATED
Another point Feldman made was that Linehan's favorite movie, "The Last Seduction," a 1994 thriller about a woman who runs away with money her husband stole and eventually commits a murder, had no place in the trial.
But Wendlandt argued Linehan tried to mimic the plot of the movie, and that the movie was important in the case because "that was a window into Linehan's psyche."
Feldman countered that the movie was so different from the circumstances around Leppink's death that it doesn't show any intent or plan by Linehan. "If Ms. Linehan said her favorite movie was 'Gandhi,' we wouldn't be admitting it just to show what an ennobled person she was," he said.
Feldman also argued that Linehan's job at the Great Alaskan Bush Company had no place at the trial. It made the jury prejudiced against her because strip bars are associated with criminal activity; it played on people's unfounded stereotypes about strippers. "The state and the trial court seem to have this odd notion that Ms. Linehan was out on the Old Seward Highway like the Sirens of the Odyssey, summoning people to manipulate them," Feldman said. He said what she did was merely a job.
RULING LIKELY IN 2010
Linehan, who is now 37 and serving a 99-year sentence at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, can expect a written decision on the appeal within a year.
She was not in the courtroom on Thursday but the victim's parents, Betsy and Kenneth Leppink, from Michigan, attended the proceeding. "I just can't believe that (the Linehan and Carlin) juries didn't see the truth," Betsy Leppink said afterward. "Judge Volland was awesome. He was the best. We really feel that way, our whole family does. I just don't think he could have made a mistake."
In the letter to his parents Leppink tells his parents to visit Linehan in prison. Asked on Thursday if they will follow their son's wish, Kenneth Leppink said, "Not right now."
Betsy Leppink said, "I'm not going to say that I would never go visit Mechele. I guess you just have to let time and the Good Lord direct you. She deserves to be helped. She deserves to be helped but I don't think she deserves to be out of prison."
Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.
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