NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Federal attorneys for Harold Wayne Nichols, the only death row inmate from the Chattanooga area, have filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Correction, claiming the agency has refused to release public records about the state’s execution process.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Knox County Chancery Court by the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, claims that the Department of Correction improperly blocked access to records related to lethal injection drugs, testing, and execution procedures. Tennessee law allows the state to redact identifying information but generally requires that information about executions be made public.
Nichols is scheduled for execution on Dec. 11. Under state law, he must choose his method of execution by Nov. 11. His attorneys say they have requested information for months to understand how the state intends to carry out lethal injection and to ensure Nichols can make an informed choice.
Nichols was convicted of a brutal 1988 attack that left 21-year-old Karen Pulley dead. On September 30 of that year, Nichols broke into Pulley’s Brainerd-area home, where she lived with two roommates. He found her alone in her bedroom, raped her, and struck her multiple times in the head with a two-by-four. Pulley was discovered the next morning by a roommate, alive but gravely injured, and died the following day…