John Edward Swindler [SEP] convicted of
John Edward Swindler
John Edward Swindler ("c." 1944 – June 18, 1990) was executed at the age of 46 by the State of Arkansas for the September 24, 1976, murder of Patrolman Randy Basnett, age 30.
The murder.
John Edward Swindler shot and killed Patrolman Randy Basnett in the afternoon of September 24, 1976. Officer Basnett had stopped at a service station at the Kelly Highway exit in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when Swindler also stopped there in a stolen car with a South
legislative act in 1983 made lethal injection the only method of execution in Arkansas. However, inmates who had been sentenced to death before the legislation was adopted were allowed to choose between lethal injection and electrocution. When Charles Laverne Singleton chose lethal injection, John Edward Swindler earned the distinction of being the last inmate to die in Arkansas' electric chair. 
Swindler refused to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair, according to the Arkansas Department of Correction. By not choosing, Swindler effectively selected electrocution. Warden David White said