Execution of Harold Wayne Nichols put off again in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WDEF) – The last minute postponement of an execution last week in Tennessee will impact a convicted serial rapist and killer from Chattanooga.

Governor Bill Lee paused all executions in Tennessee for 2022 while they bring in a third party to investigate the lethal injection process.

He stopped the execution of Oscar Smith at the last minute last week over concerns that the lethal injection drugs may not have been properly tested.

So he is asking former U.S Attorney Ed Stanton to review the circumstances that led to the testing oversight.

One of the five executions the state had scheduled for this year was Harold Wayne Nichols.

The convicted serial rapist and killer of Karen Pulley was supposed to get a lethal injection on June 9th.

His execution had already been pushed back from 2020 over concerns about corrections officials carrying it out during the pandemic.

Harold Wayne Nichols was convicted in 1990 of the rape and murder of the 21 year old Pulley in Brainerd two years before.  He had been arrested an convicted of multiple rapes that terrorized the city at the time.

So now the execution is once again put off pending the results of the investigation.

Pulley’s sister, Lisette Monroe, has spent years pushing to see Nichols executed.

On Monday, she posted “Today my anger boils over !”

A few years ago she told a reporter “I want his family to feel the pain, the hurt and the loss that we have endured without Karen.” And she feels that will only happen after his execution.

Karen Pulley