After almost three decades in a coma, the wife of British society figure Claus von Bulow died yesterday aged 76. The heiress Martha von Bulow, who was also known as 'Sunny', died at a nursing home in New York.

Her estranged husband, who currently lives in London and writes arts reviews, was accused of inducing his late wife's vegetative state 28 years ago with two unsuccessful murder attempts.

Mr von Bulow, however, was acquitted of charges alleging that he had tried to kill her by injecting her with insulin at their estate in Newport, Rhode Island. He stood trial twice. In 1982, at the first trial, von Bulow was convicted of trying twice to kill her, but this verdict was thrown out on appeal. He was acquitted at a second trial in 1985, but the case continued to divide Newport society for many years.

In 1990 the film Reversal of Fortune, starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons as the Von Bulows, maintained public interest in the case.

Prosecutors argued that Von Bulow had wanted to kill his wife in order to inherit her wealth. But defence lawyers suggested that Mrs von Bulow, who suffered from low blood sugar, was addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs and had simply drunk herself into a coma.

Two years later, her husband was exonerated and agreed to give up his claim to his wife's fortune, estimated at between £17m and £27m. He agreed to divorce her and refused to live on the income of an £81,000 trust she had created. He promised that he would leave the country and would not attempt to profit from the story.

Reversal of Fortune was based on a book by Alan Dershowitz, who handled Von Bulow's appeal and his second trial. The lawyer said: 'It's a sad ending to a sad tragedy that some people tried to turn into a crime. There are no winners in a case like this.'