NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Lee has issued a temporary reprieve to a Tennessee death row inmate who had been scheduled to be executed later this year.
Lee said Friday that he was offering Harold Wayne Nichols a temporary reprieve until the end of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor, who has previously declined to halt executions during his first-term in office, offered no other explanation for his decision. The 59-year-old Nichols had been scheduled to die by electrocution on Aug. 4.
The state Supreme Court had already twice declined to delay his execution due to the coronavirus pandemic.
