Harold Wayne Nichols, 64, was sentenced to death after being convicted for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley in Chattanooga.

Karen Pulley, who was bludgeoned, raped, and left for dead. It's the 46th execution in the U.S. this year −a number not seen since 2010 − and the third in Tennessee. "To the people I've harmed,

Thursday morning, Harold Wayne Nichols was the third man to be executed in Tennessee in 2025. Nichols pleaded guilty to raping and killing a 20-year-old woman named Karen Pulley in 1988.

Harold Nichols, convicted of the 1988 rape and murder of a Chattanooga university student, Karen Pulley, was sentenced to death in 1990.