Governor delays execution of local serial rapist Harold Wayne Nichols

NASHVILLE (WDEF) – Governor Bill Lee has moved to do what the Tennessee Supreme Court had refused to do.

He is moving back the execution Harold Wayne Nichols.

Nichols was convicted of the rape and murder of Karen Pulley at her home in Brainerd in 1988. (Our story from 1990 trial)

He was also convicted of five other aggravated rapes.

Attorneys for Nichols had petitioned the courts to delay the execution because of the pandemic, but the State Supreme Court rejected them twice.

However on Friday, Governor Bill Lee agreed to push it back to New Year’s Eve.

Nichols was scheduled to died in just over two weeks.

Nichols had just requested to be electrocuted instead of being given a lethal injection.