Faith leaders from many denominations urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to halt a state execution this week and to end the “failed” death penalty system altogether.
Harold Wayne Nichols is set for execution on Thursday, December 11th, at 10 a.m. CST. He was sentenced to death in 1990 after being convicted of raping and murdering Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old student at Chattanooga State University.
Nichols declined to choose his execution method — between the electric chair and lethal injection — by a November 11th deadline. Under state law, the method defaults to lethal injection using the state’s newest protocol, a single dose of pentobarbital. He is being held at Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Prison.
Last week, doctors, medical professionals, and attorneys urged Lee to halt the execution. They said the the August 5th execution of Byron Black — by the same method planned for Nichols — left the prisoner awake during the painful process.
On Monday, faith leaders gathered in Nashville to urge Lee for clemency in the Nichols case and to abandon the death penalty, which they described as costly, brutal, prone to error, incompatible with conservative values, and one that rarely heals victims or brings them closure. All of them, too, recognized the pain Nichols brought to the family of Pulley, his victim.
“We are here with these Tennessee Christian faith and community leaders to call upon our state to end its reliance on a failed death penalty system,” said Rev. Stacy Rector, a Presbyterian minister and executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “It’s a system that is costly, biased, unreliable, does not make us safer, does not address the real needs of most victims, and that is not aligned with our faith’s teaching. Teaching that calls us to a way of being in the world where mercy is always the final word.”
Rick Musacchio, executive director of the Tennessee Catholic Conference, said the last four popes have declared the death penalty unnecessary in modern society.
“ Most recently, Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born Pope, spoke very clearly that one cannot call themselves pro-life opposing abortion, but allowing for the death penalty and executions,” Musacchio said. “[It] is simply an incompatible arrangement [and an] inaccurate understanding of gospel teaching.”
Jasmine Woodson, a Christian conservative and director of Tennessee Conservative Concerned About the Death Penalty, agreed on the abortion issue, saying “pro-life means valuing every human life, even when it’s difficult.” She urged Lee to choose life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty.
“[Nichols] has demonstrated the very transformation we say our system should encourage,” Woodson said. “He took responsibility for his actions. He pled guilty and expressed genuine remorse. The mother of Karen Pulley … forgave Mr. Nichols, gave him a Bible, and urged him to change his life. If we believe redemption is possible … then this is the moment to make our voices heard.”
Rev. Timothy Holton, with the United Methodist Church, said he volunteers as a chaplain in Tennessee’s death row. He said, “I know these men personally, including Harold Nichols, and I count them all as my friends.”
“ In my work for mercy and justice, I sit with families grieving violent loss,” Holton said, “and families who were told the death penalty would give them peace. I also meet with families who are grateful that the death penalty was never on the table because they understand the damage it would’ve done to them in their most difficult hour.”