I got a lot of response to the shows that were on in the last few days! Only one was negative and as we have stated before, this is a positive blog created for her friends, family and supporters therefore no negative responses will be posted. But it was refreshing to only get one, compared to the several positive ones! I try not to be affected by negativity but it is so hard when I know Mechele so well and know how totally unfair this situation is. For perfect strangers to pass judgement when they do not even know all the facts seems surreal to me. But because of you wonderful individuals who have taken time from your own lives to support us puts the negativity into propert perspective. Mechele called Friday night and is doing fine. She is anxious to get back into the "Dog Program." For those of you who do not know what this is, I will explain. Selected inmates are chosen to take dogs who have been abused or abandoned or classified as "unadoptable." These animals are with them 24/7 and they work with them for six weeks and participate in a "graduation." Good homes are then found for them and the process begins anew. All of the "unadoptable" ones that Mechele has gotten have found loving homes with wonderful families. Hopefully she will be back in this program around the end of Dec. If any of you have questions that you would like me to personally answer please feel free to email me at msylady@yahoo.com. Sometimes it is hard to post individual answers here on the blog. Please keep in mind that certain issues cannot be discussed due to our pending appeal. But I will try to resolve any questions that anyone has to the best of my ability. Not to sound redundant, but my sincerest thanks to each and every one of you who has chosen to support my daughter. It really does help us through the dark times. And, remember, copies of this blog are sent to Mechele. It helps her so much to know there are people out there who truly believe in her!!! Bless each and every one of you!
Sandy
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10 comments:
Is there anything anyone other then sending money can do to help her or work on helping with her appeal??
Is there anything anyone can do to help that does not involve money, what about writing a letter to the state? what about writing to the governor?
Is there anything anyone can do other then sending money. Maybe writing and puting pressure on the state or maybe even the governor. As long as many many people do the same then maybe they will then do something.
Why not setting up a petition of supporters for one to see how many names we can get in suppiort of Michelle. we can aim for a particular number of names and then when we get that number then at that point request people to write letters to the Alaska Government. I am sure if they receive a ton of letters from supporters as well as people that do not agree withj there sentences that should be a help.
Hang in there Michelle there is a great deal of people on your side. Colin seems to be the best husband ever and does not seem to be giving up.I hardly think you will be sitting in prison for the length you have been sentenced too. I my self will be writing you a letter directly. keep your nose up, your family, freinds, and supporters are all on your side.
My husband and I watched Mechele's story last night. I was fascinated by what certainly appeared to be the neglect on the part of the jury to take so many things into consideration!! My word! One of the largest observations is that this woman's pathology is completely incorrect for someone who would have commited the crime for which she is incarcerated. The self-serving, gold-digging female protrayed by the prosecution is the model of person who would have been unable to maintain the success and stabilty of the monogamous family and professional life into which she grew as an adult. It would have been inevitable that such a person would have reverted in some way to former and characteristic behavior. Mechele left the excesses of youth behind, as we all do, and built a life in which personal achievement , family unity and social responsibility figured predominantly. A clever sociopath, having once 'gotten away with it, pretty much without exception is absolutely destined to repeat the pattern of the attention-seeking power-monger. As I said, the pathology is just plain wrong.
Another huge point that the jury seems to have completely missed is this. If John were faced with doing 99 years in prison and were indeed complicitous with Michele, certainly the prosecution at the time would have offered the man a deal in which he would have received something less than the maximum sentence if he cooperated by implicating anyone else involved in the crime. Why would he not have indeed taken such a deal? The program we viewed did not discuss that this had been offered to him, but given the zeal with which the prosecutor 'went after' Michele and the fact that John was tried first, it certainly seems very very probable that he would have been offered exactly this deal. Further, one has to surmise that his legal team would have offered this as a legal 'bone' to use to mitigate his circumstances.They did not hesitate to present Mechele in the worst possible light, certainly! He did not 'roll' on Mechelle. Why on earth would not the jury have taken this fact also into consideration during deliberations?
All the best to Mechelle, her lovely family, staunch friends, and dedicated legal team. Wow. If I can see these and other glaring faults in this outcome while sitting on a sofa in Central PA watching television, I cannot conceive as to what on earth the jury thought they were listening to!
We will keep checking on the progress of this dreadful situation, and will no doubt be wearing a tshirt from your store at some point in the future. Thank you for proving an address for this poor wife and mother also so we can at least send a card and let her know she isn't forgotten.
Take care everyone-
Annie Lane
My wife and i caught the story on Mechele last night and it absolutely upset me to see how it all ended up. I feel great sadness about the whole situation and feel deeply for Mechele and her family. I felt compelled to read up a little more on the story and give my best wishes to her! The story impacted me in a way that i've never felt from a television show and i truely hope everything works out. My thoughts go out to mechele and her loved ones.
Take care
Kyle Wideman
As a student in Law school, Granted I just frecently started Law School so this subject has not been covered, I think it would be interesting to know what and how the appeal process works. One thing I know the appeal attorneys have a very hard job and from my understanding the actuaul appeal process takes allot of time. again it would be interesting to know this process.
Even though this does not really deal with any type of appeal or any type lof court process I still would be interested to know what a day is like in the life of Michelle. This has to be very hard for her as I am very sure she never thought she would have been found guilty. I belive on the show she stated that they had plans to go to dinner after court. I also noticed when she was found guilty by this god for saken jury she, well honestly i am not sure how you would describe her reaction. I will say however i think she held her self together very well, I am glad the judge aloud for Colin to stand next to her. what ever the case I am sure Michelle has spent many nights wanting to cry. Prison is not a place to really cry. One day she will be able to cry in happeness because justice is going to come her way. Michelle stay strong and stay out of trouble, the reason i stress staying out of trouble is because allot of times in appeals they may speak of how you have been during your time in prison. simply keep your head up there are allot of people fighting for you on your side. I am not sure if anyone has ever heard of the movie Hericane, to sum things up its a movie about a boxer who was on the top of his game, ta detective on the other hand was always out to get him. to sum this up he was framed or murder spent 2o or what ever years in prison. during which time many people worked to get him released. it actually took a family from Canida to come and go through everything and as a result he was relewased due to there hard work. the point i am making of this movie is not about him spending twenty years, not the fact that many people tried. Denzel washington played the part of the person who was locked up. One of the great lines I think a highlight of this movie is where he is sitting there and he says hate put me in her and love is going to bust me out. the point i am making is Michelle you have a ton of love on your side and you will be free.
As an add-on to anni’s comments, Mechele didn’t fit the characterization provided by the prosecution even when she was young and an exotic dancer.
Both men were much older than Mechele. John Carlin had a lot of money (so didn’t need the insurance money), and so did Kent Leppink in the beginning because he’d stolen money from his family. If Mechele was merely a cold hearted gold digger with men who would do absolutely Anything for her, even commit murder, she would have quit dancing and gone to college on their dime! She didn’t. She worked and saved to pay her own way, and then she married a man on his way to medical school which required her to work and support him while he did so. Other than being a dancer for about a year-and-a-half when she was barely out of her teens, none of the descriptions of her by the prosecution and investigator Linda Branchflower can be found in Mechele’s life before or since Kent Leppink’s killing.
When I listen to Linda Branchflower describe Mechele and what happened as though her version is proven fact, when in fact no proof was provided nor was it required to charge, try, and convict Mechele, I think that if there is a hell, people like Ms. Branchflower need to roast there for having played so fast and loose with the lives of other people, and all for her own self-aggrandizement.
Also, when I challenged the local paper’s tabloid reporting of both Carlin’s and Mechele’s trials that guaranteed Mechele couldn’t get a fair trial in Alaska (most coverage was salacious gossip almost entirely about Mechele and I said it was sexist and misogynist of the paper to cover their trials that way), his response was that it salacious and unrelenting because it was a “stripper and a murder after all.” The fact that she was a dancer for only a very short period of her life yet his paper repeatedly printed the unfounded opinions of Troopers and the prosecution, and referred to Mechele only as a stripper and a dancer was just dandy with him.
Our press is also guilty; so guilty in fact, that it was the press coverage, especially the Anchorage Daily News that drew our attention to Mechele Linehan and her case. We were horrified by it and we could see glaring holes in the prosecution’s case just from the press coverage! Yet, the jury convicted and the judge gave a woman not accused of actually doing the killing and with no criminal record before or after, a 99 year sentence! Something is rotten here in Alaska, and frankly, as a citizen, I find it very scary.
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