Harold Nichols

NASHVILLE - A federal appeals court has denied a petition from a death row inmate who claimed mistakes by police, his lawyers and the judge led to his conviction.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati posted its ruling Thursday in the appeal of Harold Wayne Nichols. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1988 rape and murder of 21-year-old Karen Elise Pulley of Chattanooga.

Nichols - originally from Cleveland, Tenn. - was also convicted in a series of 11 other rapes or attempted rapes in the Chattanooga area.

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