A Tennessee death row inmate used his last words to apologize to the people he harmed before he was executed nearly three decades after he raped and murdered a “gentle, sweet, and innocent” college student.
Harold Wayne Nichols declared he was “ready to go home” as he was administered a lethal injection of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Thursday.
“To the people I’ve harmed, I’m sorry. To my family, know that I love you,” Nichols said, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. “I know where I’m going. I’m ready to go home.”
Nichols, 64, sought a stay of execution on the eve of his death sentence, but the Tennessee Supreme Court denied the request.
He was pronounced dead at 10:39 a.m. Thursday.
The convicted murderer had been on death row since 1990, two years after he was found guilty of killing 20-year-old Chattanooga State University student Karen Pulley.
Pulley was at her Chattanooga home on Sept. 30, 1988, when Nichols broke in through a window and found her asleep in bed, the Tennessean reported.
He struck her in the head with a two-by-four, raped her, and fled. Pulley died in the hospital the following day.
Pulley was Nichols’ first known victim in a three-month crime spree spanning September 1988 to January 1989, during which he raped several other women and attempted to rape five more in the Chattanooga area.
Following his arrest, Nichols confessed to raping and murdering Pulley.
At trial, he also admitted to raping seven other women and pleaded guilty to Pulley’s murder.
Although he expressed remorse, Nichols acknowledged he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested.
Nichols received the maximum punishment on all charges — more than 200 years for multiple rape and burglary counts and the death penalty for murder. A jury sentenced him to death in 1990.
His execution was delayed twice, once in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic and again in 2022 after a procedural error led Gov. Bill Lee to suspend executions statewide.
Pulley’s sister, Lisette Monroe, told the Associated Press days before Nichols’ execution that her family endured “37 years of hell” waiting for his sentence to be served.
“I’ll be honest with you, neither one of my parents were ever the same after Karen’s murder,” said Monroe, who was 17 at the time.
She said the pain of losing her sister will never completely go away, but hopes Nichols’ execution will bring some measure of peace.
“We can focus on the happy memories of Karen,” Monroe said, describing her sister as “gentle, sweet, and innocent.”
“The love that we had for her, rather than every time we turn around reliving her murder.”
Nichols is the third inmate executed this year under Tennessee’s new lethal injection protocol, which uses a single drug, pentobarbital, instead of the previous three-drug combination.
With Post wires
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