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Tennessee governor delays scheduled execution due to virus

FILE - In this July 1, 2020, file photo, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee removes his mask as he begins a news conference in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee was one of the first states to begin reopening in late April after Lee reluctantly issued a safer-at-home order that forced businesses to close. Since then, case numbers have continued to rise in part due to more testing, but also because of an increase in community spread of the disease. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
FILE - In this July 1, 2020, file photo, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee removes his mask as he begins a news conference in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee was one of the first states to begin reopening in late April after Lee reluctantly issued a safer-at-home order that forced businesses to close. Since then, case numbers have continued to rise in part due to more testing, but also because of an increase in community spread of the disease. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) FILE - In this July 1, 2020, file photo, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee removes his mask as he begins a news conference in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee was one of the first states to begin reopening in late April after Lee reluctantly issued a safer-at-home order that forced businesses to close. Since then, case numbers have continued to rise in part due to more testing, but also because of an increase in community spread of the disease. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI / Associated Press 4 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A Tennessee death row inmate received a rare temporary reprieve from Gov. Bill Lee on Friday, after the Republican announced the execution would not take place this year because of the coronavirus – a reason the state’s highest court had previously dismissed as cause to delaying the capital case.

“I am granting Harold Wayne Nichols a temporary reprieve from execution until December 31, 2020, due to the challenges and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lee said in a statement.

The governor, who has declined to intervene in the four prior executions during his first term in office, offered no further explanation for his decision.

The 59-year-old Nichols had been scheduled to die by electrocution on Aug. 4. He chose the electric chair over Tennessee’s preferred execution method of lethal injection – an option allowed inmates in the state who were convicted of crimes before January 1999.

Lee’s Friday decision stands in contrast to the state Supreme Court, where justices had already twice declined to delay his execution because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nichols’ attorneys had been looking for a delay in federal court.