Tennessee is preparing to execute Harold Wayne Nichols by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State University.
Nichols confessed to killing Pulley as well as raping several other women in the Chattanooga area. Although he expressed remorse at trial, he admitted that he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested. He was sentenced to death in 1990.
In a recent interview, Pulley’s sister, Lisette Monroe, said the wait for Nichols’ execution has been “37 years of hell.” She described her sister as “gentle, sweet and innocent,” and said she hopes that after the execution she’ll be able to focus on the happy memories of Pulley instead of her murder…