Death row inmate declines to chose between the electric chair and lethal injection

Tennessee decease enactment inmate Harold Wayne Nichols has declined to chose betwixt the electrical seat and lethal injection for his Dec. 11 execution, meaning the authorities volition default to lethal injection

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee decease enactment inmate Harold Wayne Nichols connected Monday declined to take betwixt the electrical seat and lethal injection for his Dec. 11 execution, meaning the authorities volition default to lethal injection.

Nichols was sentenced to decease successful 1990 aft helium was convicted of raping and murdering Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old pupil astatine Chattanooga State University, 2 years earlier. He has 2 weeks to alteration his caput astir choosing which method volition beryllium used, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said successful an email.

He was scheduled to beryllium executed successful 2020, and had chosen the electrical chair, but was past given a reprieve owed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tennessee inmates who were convicted of crimes earlier January 1999 are permitted to choose electrocution implicit the state's preferred method of lethal injection. Although respective states inactive licence the usage of the electrical chair, it has lone been utilized five times successful the past decade, each successful Tennessee.

At the clip that Nichols selected electrocution, Tennessee's lethal injection protocol utilized 3 antithetic drugs successful series. It was a process that inmates' attorneys claimed was riddled with problems. Their concerns were shown to person merit successful 2022, erstwhile Gov. Bill Lee paused executions, including a 2nd execution day for Nichols. An independent review of the state's lethal injection process recovered that nary of the drugs prepared for the 7 inmates executed successful Tennessee since 2018 had been decently tested.

The Correction Department issued a new execution protocol successful past December that utilizes the azygous cause pentobarbital. Attorneys for respective decease enactment inmates person sued implicit the caller protocol, but a proceedings successful that lawsuit is not scheduled until April.

Nichols confessed to raping and murdering Pulley arsenic good arsenic respective different rapes successful the Chattanooga area. Although helium expressed remorse astatine trial, helium admitted that helium would person continued his convulsive behaviour had helium not been arrested.

Sponsored Content by Taboola