USA - Harold Nichols (Tennessee)

USA - Tennessee. Harold Nichols was executed by lethal injection on December 11

December 11, 2025:

December 11, 2025 - Tennessee. Harold Nichols was executed by lethal injection Dec. 11 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Nichols, 64, White, was pronounced dead at 10:39 a.m. He was on death row for 35 years.

Nichols was sentenced to death in 1990 for the Sept. 30, 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, 20, White, in Chattanooga.

In total, during a three-month crime spree spanning from September 1988 to January 1989, Nichols raped or attempted to rape at least 12 women. Pulley was the first known victim of Nichols.

Upon his arrest, he confessed "primarily to set the record straight because the police had been falsely accusing him of other rapes, assaults and even child molestation, that he had not committed," court records said.

On the day of his murder trial, Nichols pleaded guilty.

For all his crimes, Nichols was sentenced to the maximum punishment allowed for each charge — more than 200 years for 12 rapes, attempted rape and burglary charges and death for the murder charge.

Nichols challenged Tennessee's new lethal injection protocol in court in 2025, but judges dismissed his lawsuit.

He sought clemency from Gov. Bill Lee based on the testimony of friends, lawyers, jurors and former prosecutors.

Six jurors on his murder trial said in sworn statements they would not again sentence Nichols to death. Several said they chose the death penalty to ensure Nichols would not be released from prison but did not believe he would be executed. When Nichols was sentenced in 1990, Tennessee had not executed anyone in 30 years. All life sentences at that time carried the possibility of parole, and jurors said they feared Nichols being released.

The district attorney's office in Hamilton County in 2017 reached an agreement with Nichols' attorneys to change his sentence to life in prison. Judge Don Ash refused to let the agreement take effect.

Many who knew Nichols asked the governor for clemency because he had changed so much as a person since he committed the crimes. He had shown remorse and rehabilitation, which Nichols largely credited to Pulley's mother forgiving him for his crimes after his sentencing. In a 2025 apology letter, he wrote to Pulley: "Your life was cut short by me. I am accountable to you.”

Tennessee faith voices mourned the death of Nichols during a virtual vigil that began at 10 a.m., when the execution was scheduled to begin. Rachel Kiesel Ryan, who works with Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, described Nichols as “a human being capable of growth, capable of repentance."

Tennessee's three Catholic bishops and the state's Episcopal bishops issued a separate statement in November calling for an end to the death penalty.

Nichols becomes the 3rd person to be executed in Tennessee this year since the state resumed capital punishment after a 5-year hiatus, the 16th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 2000, the 46th person to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,653rd overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977

https://eu.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2025/12/11/tennessee-harold-wayne-nichols-death-row-inmate-execution/87374907007/