FBI Tampering Alleged in Cyanide Case

June 6 -- Stella Nickell has never stopped denying she killed her husband Bruce with cyanide in 1986. But now her defense team says they can prove her innocence.

Nickell, 57, is serving two 90-year prison terms after being found guilty of putting cyanide in a pain-reliever capsule taken by her husband and trying to hide the crime by tampering with other bottles of the over-the-counter drug, which resulted in a second death.

Her case came at a time when the country was reeling from a series of drug-tampering incidents.

Now, two private investigators who have been digging into the Seattle case for 14 months say they can prove her innocence with documents the FBI never turned over to the defense at the time of the trial.

If the claim sounds strangely familiar, think again, says Al Farr, one of the two sleuths who have been working on the case.

"I know when news first got out there that we were doing this, some people assumed we were just floating on Tim McVeigh's coattails," Farr said. "That couldn't be further from the truth."

The FBI has admitted it failed to turn over more than 4,000 documents in the case of McVeigh, who faces the death penalty for the deadly Oklahoma City bombing.

Farr, Paul Ciolino and attorney Carl Colbert have filed a motion with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking permission to reopen Nickell's case.

The court has 30 days to respond, and can ask for further information, ask the U.S. attorney's office for a response or decline the request.

A Question of Innocence

The FBI in Seattle has referred all questions about the case to the U.S. attorney's office. A spokesman there said Nickell had received a fair trial.

To Farr and Ciolino, though, the evidence is overwhelming.

"We did not come into this case because we thought there were some nice legal technicalities involved that would perhaps swing her out the jail door," Ciolino said.

"Her legal technicality days are over with. They're done. The only thing walking her out of that jail cell in California is a question of innocence."