A convicted murderer, Harold Wayne Nichols, who committed a heinous crime 35 years ago by raping and killing a student, has opted not to select between the electric chair and lethal injection for his impending execution. Consequently, Nichols will receive the lethal injection as the default method on death row in Tennessee, more than three decades after his initial sentencing. Although Nichols previously chose the electric chair for his scheduled 2020 execution, he now has a two-week window to reconsider his decision.
Nichols, who would have been the sixth individual executed by electric chair in the US within the past decade, received a reprieve due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as his rescheduled execution on December 11 approaches, he remains undecided on the method to be used. The Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson confirmed this uncertainty in a statement released to the media.
Having confessed to the brutal rape and murder of Karen Pulley, 21, along with several other assaults in Tennessee in the late 1980s, Nichols expressed regret during his 1990 trial. He acknowledged that his violent actions would have persisted if he had not been apprehended. Sentenced to death in Tennessee, Nichols falls under one of the 27 states where capital punishment is still legal. In Tennessee, inmates convicted before January 1999 are permitted to opt for electrocution over lethal injection, a method that has been rarely chosen, having been utilized only five times in the past decade, all in Tennessee.
Previously, Tennessee’s lethal injection process involved a series of three drugs, which faced criticism from inmates’ attorneys for being flawed. Following an independent review that revealed issues with the execution protocol, including lack of proper drug testing for inmates executed since 2018, Governor Bill Lee halted executions, including Nichols’ second scheduled execution. Subsequently, a new execution protocol was introduced in December, employing the single drug pentobarbital. Legal challenges from several death row inmates against the new protocol are ongoing, with a trial not set until April.
In a separate incident, Norman Mearle Grim Jr, a man in Florida, was executed on death row despite denying accusations of rape and murder. Convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Cynthia Campbell, Grim Jr maintained his innocence in court. Nonetheless, he received a three-drug injection on Florida’s death row, marking the state’s record 15th execution this year.