Donald E. Harding

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Donald Eugene Harding (March 1, 1949 – April 6, 1992) was convicted of the January 25, 1980 murders of Robert Wise and Martin Concannon. He was executed in 1992 by the State of Arizona by gas chamber. He became the first person to be executed in Arizona since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated.

Harding's execution is also noteworthy in that his asphyxiation in the gas chamber took 11 minutes before death was finally confirmed. His death caused the reporters to be visibly upset, whilst the state attorney general Grant Woods who was present, did not get ill (contrary to misleading media reports at the time) but was flipped off with an obscene gesture by the inmate as the gas fumes rose in the chamber.

This provided momentum for the movement to replace the gas chamber with lethal injection, and in November of that year, Arizona voters approved the change in method, although prisoners sentenced to death prior to November 15, 1992 could still choose the gas chamber. Harding thus became the last prisoner executed in Arizona's gas chamber without having lethal injection as an option (Karl-Heinz LaGrand chose the gas chamber in 1999).