Tennessee death row inmate Harold Wayne Nichols asks governor for life in prison instead

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Attorneys for Tennessee death row inmate Harold Wayne Nichols are asking the governor to convert his sentence to life imprisonment with just a month until his scheduled execution date.

In asking for clemency from Republican Gov. Bill Lee, they point out that Nichols confessed to the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State University, as well as a series of other rapes.

''Wayne's early taking of responsibility sets him apart from most others on death row. In fact, he would be the first person to be executed for a crime he pleaded guilty to since Tennessee re-enacted the death penalty in 1978,'' the petition states.

Clemency essentially asks for an act of mercy by the governor, who has the power to unilaterally commute a death sentence. It's a last-ditch effort to prevent Nichols' execution after his appeals have been exhausted.

The last time a Tennessee governor granted clemency was in 2011, when Democrat Phil Bredesen commuted Edward Jerome Harbison's death sentence to life without parole, saying the 1983 murder of Edith Russell was heinous but didn't merit execution. Harbison had done handy work for Russell before her killing.

Six people have been executed in Tennessee since Lee took office in 2019.

The clemency petition for Nichols argues that he turned his life around in prison, becoming a model inmate who helps make the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution a safer place and even mentoring at-risk youth.

One of his defense attorneys, Rosemarie Bryan, later described the encounter, saying Pulley spoke to Nichols about the Christian faith and salvation and prayed with him. Nichols expressed his remorse and sorrow for what he had done. They were both crying. His defense attorney "felt that Mrs. Pulley was trying to ‘sort of save this kid's soul,''' according to the petition.

She met with him twice more before he was transferred out of the county jail. During one visit, she gave him a Bible that he still treasures 35 years later, the petition says.

Those visits planted the seed of a desire to better himself, according to the petition, which quotes former correctional officers and prison volunteers who vouch for his rehabilitation.

Former Correction Lt. Tony Eden told the attorneys that Nichols was one of the ''warmest and kindest'' inmates he encountered in his 30 years with the Tennessee Department of Correction. ''He was a calming presence on the unit, serving as a role model and mentor to his fellow inmates,'' Eden said.

Former corrections officer Hugh Rushton called Nichols, ''a true leader who inspired other inmates to better themselves.''

Nichols declined to choose on Monday between the electric chair and lethal injection for his Dec. 11 execution, meaning the state will default to lethal injection. He has two weeks to change his mind.

His attorney Stephen Ferrell said in an email that ''the Tennessee Department of Correction has not provided enough information about Tennessee's lethal execution protocol for our client to make an informed decision about how the state will end his life.''

The Correction Department issued a new execution protocol in last December that utilizes the single drug pentobarbital. Attorneys for several death row inmates have sued over the new rules, but a trial in that case is not scheduled until April.

___

This story has been updated to correct that the most recent clemency for a death row inmate in Tennessee was in 2011, not 2010.