If Ann Miller is charged in the 2000 arsenic poisoning death of her late husband, Eric, she will surrender willingly to authorities, said Joseph B. Cheshire V of Raleigh, one of her lawyers.

Still, Cheshire hopes information released last week to investigators will not lead to criminal charges against her. Derril Willard, who police allege was her lover, gave that information to Raleigh lawyer Richard T. Gammon before killing himself in 2001. According to the N.C. Supreme Court, the information implicates a third party in Eric Miller's death.

"If there are charges brought against her, which we hope there won't be, we have told the prosecutors that we would appreciate the opportunity to surrender her," Cheshire said.

Asked about that offer, Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby said, "I don't really have a reaction. We're working with police with an ongoing investigation which has been ongoing for three years."

Cheshire said either he or lawyer Wade Smith has been in daily contact with Ann Miller. He says she is holding up well since the investigation into her former husband's death intensified. She has remarried and lives in Wilmington.

"She's holding up as well as ... expected," Cheshire said. "It's quite amazing [given] the pressure she must be under."

Eric Miller died Dec. 2, 2000, after several weeks of suffering from a mysterious illness. Doctors later discovered arsenic in his system. Police say Eric Miller fell ill twice before his death -- once after drinking a beer bought and poured for him by Willard, and once after eating a meal prepared by his wife.

Willard and Ann Miller had access to an arsenic compound at GlaxoSmithKline, the drug company where they worked.

Two months after Eric Miller died, Willard killed himself and left a note denying that he killed Eric Miller.

Though Willard never talked to police before taking his own life, he did talk to Gammon, who was forced last week to reveal what Willard told him to prosecutors. Gammon turned over a paragraph after the N.C. Supreme Court compelled him. The contents have not been made public.