Ahead of the December 11 scheduled execution of Wayne Nichols, a 64-year-old man who has been on death row in Tennessee for 35 years, Amnesty International USA’s Deputy Director of Research, Justin Mazzola, said:
“Amnesty International calls on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute Wayne Nichols’ death sentence.
“Multiple jurors who sentenced him to death in 1990 have stated their support for clemency. They said they voted for death because Tennessee had not carried out an execution since 1960, and so they thought it unlikely that Wayne Nichols would be put to death and would instead spend life in prison. Such speculative decision-making in the jury room is surely cause for clemency now.
“Further, the state Supreme Court’s Chief Justice considered that the prosecutor’s argument for death as the only way of ensuring Wayne Nichols would not reoffend was unconstitutional. Today two former Hamilton County prosecutors involved in the case support clemency and point to his model conduct behind bars over more than three decades.
“At his sentencing, Nichols expressed remorse and recognized the pain he had caused. His remorse and willingness to accept personal responsibility has been recognized by prison experts and others. Under international law, personal reformation and social rehabilitation are the “essential aim” of the treatment of individuals held in the prison system.”
Background
In 1990, Wayne Nichols pled guilty to the 1988 rape and murder of a woman in Chattanooga.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases because it violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.
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