Linehan's story to be shown on '48 Hours'

Mechele Linehan, who awaits sentencing for a first-degree murder conviction in an Alaska jail cell, will be the focus of a two-hour "48 Hours" episode at 9 p.m. Saturday on CBS.

Linehan, who worked as an exotic dancer when she lived in Alaska in the mid-1990s, was convicted in October in connection with the 1996 shooting death of Kent Leppink. Until she was charged in October 2006, Linehan lived in Olympia with her husband, Colin, a former civilian doctor at Madigan Army Medical Center, and their school-age daughter.

Linehan and her husband gave "48 Hours" an exclusive interview. Linehan's sentencing is set for March 28, and she faces a potential 99-year prison sentence. A co-defendant, John Carlin, was sentenced in January to 99 years in prison for Leppink's murder.

According to Alaska authorities, Linehan and Carlin planned Leppink's murder to collect on Leppink's $1 million life-insurance policy, which they mistakenly thought named Linehan as the beneficiary. Leppink changed his policy a week before his death to make his father the beneficiary instead of Linehan, court documents state.

Linehan maintains her innocence, according to excerpts of the interview that were released to The Olympian by CBS.

"I just feel like there is nothing I can do to make people believe me or make people like me," Linehan says in the interview, according to the release. "A witch I may be, but a psychopath I am definitely not."

Colin Linehan also consented to an interview with "48 Hours."

"The whole thing is surreal," he said in the interview, according to the release. "(A) nerve-shattering, anxiety-provoking nightmare... the bottom line is that's not who she is."