Execution
A 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 picked electrocution. Warden David White said Swindler might have wanted the notoriety of being the last Arkansas inmate to die in the electric chair. His was also the only execution in the new electric chair constructed by the state in the 1970s.
Swindler was the first person executed by the state of Arkansas since Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), after new capital punishment laws were passed in Arkansas and that came into force on March 23, 1973.
After the Swindler execution, electrocution was made available to inmates who chose it. Further legislation stipulated that electrocution is authorized, but only if lethal injection is found unconstitutional.
Read more about this topic: John Edward Swindler
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