In Nashville, Tennessee, a significant development is taking place as the state readies to carry out the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols. Scheduled for Thursday, Nichols faces execution by lethal injection for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student attending Chattanooga State University.

Nichols admitted to the murder of Pulley and confessed to a series of other sexual assaults in the Chattanooga area. Despite expressing remorse during his trial, Nichols acknowledged that he might have continued his violent spree if not apprehended. In 1990, he was handed a death sentence.

Reflecting on the long wait for justice, Pulley’s sister, Lisette Monroe, described the years since her sister’s death as “37 years of hell.” She fondly remembered Karen as “gentle, sweet, and innocent,” expressing hope that following Nichols’ execution, she can focus on the cherished memories of her sister rather than the tragedy of her murder.

Efforts by Nichols’ legal team to have his sentence reduced to life imprisonment were unsuccessful. They argued for clemency based on his acceptance of responsibility and guilty plea, noting that Nichols would be the first individual executed for a crime to which he confessed since Tennessee reinstated the death penalty in 1978.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of execution, paving the way for the sentence to be carried out.

Nichols, 64, has seen two previous execution dates come and go. The state earlier planned to execute him in August 2020, but Nichols was given a reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, Nichols had selected to die in the electric chair — a choice allowed in Tennessee for inmates who were convicted of crimes before January 1999.

Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol in 2020 used three different drugs in series, a process that inmates’ attorneys claimed was riddled with problems. Their concerns were shown to have merit in 2022, when Gov. Bill Lee paused executions, including a second execution date for Nichols. An independent review of the state’s lethal injection process found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been properly tested.

The Tennessee Department of Correction issued a new execution protocol in last December that utilizes the single drug pentobarbital. Attorneys for several death row inmates have sued over the new rules, but a trial in that case is not scheduled until April. Nichols declined to chose an execution method this time, so his execution will be by lethal injection by default.

His attorney Stephen Ferrell explained in an email that “the Tennessee Department of Correction has not provided enough information about Tennessee’s lethal execution protocol for our client to make an informed decision about how the state will end his life.”

Nichols’ attorneys on Monday won a court ruling granting access to records from two earlier executions using the new method, but the state has not yet released the records and says it will appeal. During Tennessee’s last execution in August, Byron Black said he was “hurting so bad” in his final moments. The state has offered no explanation for what might have caused the pain.

Many states have had difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs as anti-death penalty activists have put pressure on drug companies and other suppliers. Between the shortages and legal challenges over botched executions, some states have moved to alternative methods of execution including a firing squad in South Carolina and nitrogen gas in Alabama.