Another Death Row Prisoner Sues to Delay Execution - Articles

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Another Death Row Prisoner Sues to Delay Execution

Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Apr 22, 2025

Death row prisoner Harold Wayne Nichols on April 18 sued Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, Riverbend Maximum Security Institution Warden Kenneth Nelsen, as well as the unknown members of the execution team — listed as "John Does" in his lawsuit — in an attempt to delay his Dec. 11 execution until litigation over the state's new execution protocol is resolved. The Tennessean reports that the state has agreed to not execute at least two others on death row until their lawsuits conclude. Nichols argues the terms of that agreement must be extended to him or else the state is "unequally applying" its laws. Nichols' suit also makes several arguments against the new protocol itself, echoing many of those made in an earlier filing by other Tennessee death row prisoners. The U.S. Department of Justice in January rescinded its protocol allowing single-drug lethal injections for federal executions.