A convicted murderer, who brutally assaulted and murdered a student 35 years ago, has opted not to select between the electric chair and lethal injection for his upcoming execution. Harold Wayne Nichols will be administered the lethal injection as the default method of execution on death row in Tennessee, more than three decades after his conviction. Nichols has a two-week window to reconsider his decision on the execution method, as back in 2020, he had initially chosen the electric chair.
Nichols was on track to become the sixth person in the US to be executed via the electric chair in the past decade, all of which occurred in Tennessee. However, his execution was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As of last night, Nichols remained undecided on his choice of execution method for the rescheduled date, set for December 11. The Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson confirmed this information in a recent press release.
Nichols admitted to the rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old student, along with multiple other assaults in the Chattanooga area of Tennessee during the late 1980s. Despite expressing regret during his 1990 trial, Nichols acknowledged that he would have continued his violent acts if not apprehended.
Having been sentenced to death in Tennessee, one of the 27 states where capital punishment is legal, Nichols falls under the category of inmates convicted before January 1999 who have the option to choose electrocution over lethal injection. This alternative method has only been utilized five times in the past decade, all within Tennessee.
At the time Nichols selected electrocution, Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure involved a three-drug protocol that had faced criticism for its flaws. In light of concerns raised by inmates’ attorneys, Governor Bill Lee halted executions in 2022, including Nichols’ scheduled execution. Following an independent review that revealed inadequately tested drugs used in previous executions, a new execution protocol was implemented in December, employing the single drug pentobarbital. Legal challenges from several death row inmates regarding this new protocol are ongoing, with a trial scheduled for April.
In a separate incident, a man in Florida, Norman Mearle Grim Jr, was executed on death row despite consistently denying the rape and murder charges against his neighbor. Grim, aged 65, was put to death through a three-drug injection in Florida, marking the state’s 15th execution this year.