On
this date, April 6, 1992, Donald Harding was executed by the gas chamber in
Arizona. He was convicted for 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. I will post information about him from Wikipedia
and Murderpedia before giving my comments.
Donald 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. The state attorney general,
Grant Woods, was a witness at the execution and Harding spent his last moments
cursing Woods and giving him the middle finger. Contrary to media wire reports
at the time, Woods claimed not to have become ill witnessing the execution.
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 (Walter
LaGrand, who was sentenced to death in 1982, was executed in the gas chamber at
his request).
Classification: Serial killer
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Characteristics: Robberies
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Number of victims: 7
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Date of murders: 1979 - 1980
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Date of arrest: January 26, 1980
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Date of birth: March 1, 1949
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Victims profile: Men
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Method of murder: Shooting - Asphyxiation
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Location: Arkansas/New
Mexico/California/Arizona, USA
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Status: Executed by asphyxiation-gas in
Arizona on April 6, 1992
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On January 25, 1980, probably by posing as a security guard, Harding
managed to gain entrance to 5: Tucson motel room of Robert Wise and Martin
Concannon. Harding hogtied both men with multiple ligatures and shot each A the
head and chest from close range. Harding also beat Wise with a lamp and stuffed
sock into Concannon's mouth. He then took various articles belonging to both
men and departed in Concannon's car.
About 8:00 p.m. that same day, Harding appeared at Wise's home in Mesa,
knocked on the door, and asked Wise's wife whether "Bob" was them He
had one of Wise's business cards in his left hand and kept his right hand in
his pocket while he spoke with Mrs. Wise at the door. He left, probably because
a child and a large dog were present. Harding was arrested in Flagstaff on
January 26, 1980, while driving Concannon's car.
These are the other crimes that Donald Eugene Harding is accused of
committing in the weeks after he sawed his way out of an Arkansas jail on Sept.
17, 1979:
- Attempting to rob a prostitute in Chicago on Sept. 27, 1979.
- Robbing a steakhouse in Omaha of $83,000 in cash and jewels, and pistol-whipping a patron on Sept. 30, 1979.
- Holding up a Knoxville, Tenn., bank on Oct. 23, 1979.
- The murder of Stanton Winston Blanton in Dallas on Dec. 10, 1979.
- The kidnapping and robbery of the B.R. Baker family in their north Dallas home on Dec. 11, 1979.
- Using a phony security guard's badge to enter insurance agent Ronald Svetgoff's motel room in Waco, Texas, before tying and gagging him, and stealing his car on Dec. 18, 1979.
- Tying up Clayton Hall, his wife and another couple, and robbing them in Dallas on Dec. 24, 1979.
- Robbing, hogtying and gagging Phillip Buss in a Salt Lake City hotel on Dec. 31, 1979, and stealing his car.
- Robbing and murdering Charles Dickerson on Jan. 3, 1980, in a motel in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Dickerson was found beneath a bed, bound and gagged, and dead of asphyxiation.
- Pulling a .25-caliber automatic pistol on Frank Palmer of Sacramento, and tying him with cord and neckties from Palmer's apartment before stealing his car and credit card on Jan. 5, 1980.
- Asking to rent an apartment from Lyle and Margaret Murphy of Bakersfield, Calif., and then stealing their money and their car. --› Forcing Joseph Wohlers and his uncle, Robert Stoick, into their Los Angeles hotel room at gunpoint on Jan. 6, 1980, and hogtying them before taking their credit cards, luggage and car.
- Murdering and stealing a car from Gerald Huth, a businessman from Minnesota, on U.S. 101 near Paso Robles, Calif., on Jan. 10, 1980.
- Kidnapping and robbing Shirley Land and four others in her husband's San Diego optometry clinic Jan. 21, 1980.
- Using adhesive tape from Allan Gage's colostomy bag to tie his hands and feet while robbing him in a Phoenix motel room on Jan. 25, 1980. Gage suffocated on a sock stuffed in his mouth and secured with tape, and Harding later was convicted of the murder.
PROCEEDINGS
Presiding Judge: Harry Gin
Prosecutor: Victor Wild
Start of Trial: April 21, 1982
Verdict: April 27, 1982
Sentencing: May 26, 1982
Execution: April 6, 1992
Presiding Judge: Harry Gin
Prosecutor: Victor Wild
Start of Trial: April 21, 1982
Verdict: April 27, 1982
Sentencing: May 26, 1982
Execution: April 6, 1992
Aggravating Circumstances
Prior conviction punishable by life imprisonment
Prior conviction involving violence
Pecuniary gain
Especially depraved
Prior conviction punishable by life imprisonment
Prior conviction involving violence
Pecuniary gain
Especially depraved
Mitigating Circumstances
None
None
PUBLISHED OPINIONS
State v. Harding, 137 Ariz. 278, 670 P.2d 383 (1983).
Harding v. Lewis, 641 F. Supp. 979 (D. Ariz. 1986).
Harding v. Lewis, 834 F.2d 853 (9th Cir. 1987).
State v. Harding, 137 Ariz. 278, 670 P.2d 383 (1983).
Harding v. Lewis, 641 F. Supp. 979 (D. Ariz. 1986).
Harding v. Lewis, 834 F.2d 853 (9th Cir. 1987).
Harding's gas-chamber
execution lasted more than 11 minutes and was so gruesome that Arizonans voted
to require prisoners condemned after November 1992 to be executed by lethal
injection.
Last Meal
Several Fried Eggs, Several Strips of Bacon Toast, Butter, Honey and
Orange Juice
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.
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).
Donald Harding at the crime scene. |
Gruesome Death in Gas Chamber Pushes Arizona Toward Injections
The New York Times
April 25, 1992
The Arizona House of Representatives, its members disturbed by graphic
accounts of the slow death of the first man executed in the state's gas chamber
in 29 years, has voted to switch from gas to lethal injection.
The change to a method presumed to be more humane passed the House 41 to
7 on Thursday. The State Senate is considered likely to pass an identical
measure. After Senate approval, the matter would be put before the voters in
November as an amendment to the state Constitution, which now specifies the use
of gas.
The change was proposed early this year but did not gain significant
support until the April 6 execution of a triple murderer, Donald Eugene
Harding, in the gas chamber at the state prison in Florence.
Mr. Harding was not pronounced dead until 10 1/2 minutes after two
cyanide pellets were dropped into a bowl of sulfuric acid beneath his chair.
Witnesses described a gruesome scene: Mr. Harding gasping, shuddering and
desperately making obscene gestures with both strapped-down hands.
The campaign for change gained momentum on Tuesday when California had
its first execution in 25 years. The California inmate, Robert Alton Harris,
also took 10 minutes to die.
Arizona, Maryland and California are the only states where gas is the
sole method of execution. In Mississippi, prisoners who were given death
sentences before 1974 are executed by gas and prisoners sentenced since then
are executed by injection.
The lethal-injection amendment was introduced early this year by State
Representative Lela Steffey in response to complaints about the possible
pollution involved in venting gas after an execution.
Popular Support
Ms. Steffey said polls showed that a majority of state residents supported
the change. Among the backers is State Attorney General Grant Woods, who
acknowledged being disturbed by watching Mr. Harding die.
The chief opponent of the change was the head of the House Judiciary
Committee, Patti Noland, a supporter of victims' rights whose son was shot to
death last year during a traffic dispute.
But she changed her mind because, she said, victims would like to
eliminate what they see as a delaying tactic by defense lawyers -- the argument
that gas amounts to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
Arizona hanged its murderers until 1930, when a condemned woman was
accidentally decapitated. The state switched to the gas chamber in 1933 on the
ground that it was more humane.
Arizona Conducts First Execution in 29 Years
April 7, 1992 - The New York Times
Arizona conducted its first execution in 29 years today, putting to
death a triple murderer who made obscene gestures while he was strapped in the
gas chamber.
The prisoner, Donald Eugene Harding, 43 years old, was executed just
after midnight after a flurry of appeals. He was pronounced dead 10 1/2 minutes
after cyanide pellets were dropped into a bowl of sulfuric acid beneath his
chair to release the gas.
As he waited, Mr. Harding gestured as if to urge the executioner to get
started. At least twice, once while in the throes of death, Mr. Harding
extended his middle finger. At the time, he had straps across his forearms.
Mr. Harding was sentenced to die for the 1980 murders of two
businessmen, Robert Wise of Mesa and Martin Concannon of Tucson, who were
robbed, hogtied, beaten and shot in a Tucson hotel in 1980.
He was also convicted of killing a man in similar fashion a day earlier
in a Phoenix motel and was linked to at least three other slayings, one in
Arkansas and two in California.
It was the first execution in Arizona since 1963, when Manuel Silvas
died in the gas chamber for fatally shooting his estranged pregnant girlfriend.
Mr. Harding became the 168th person put to death since the United States
Supreme Court allowed states to resume use of capital punishment in 1976.
Since then, 36 states have put the death penalty back in the books, and
Arizona became the 19th state to carry it out. Delaware conducted its first
execution in nearly 46 years on March 14, when Steven Brian Pennell was put to
death. On April 21, Robert Alton Harris is scheduled to die for the 1978 murder
of two teen-agers in California's first execution in 25 years.
Late Sunday, the Arizona Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to
recommend that Gov. Fife Symington grant Mr. Harding a reprieve or commute his
sentence to life in prison.
Late-hour appeals were rejected in turn by the state Supreme Court, a
Federal judge in Tucson, a Federal appeals court and the United States Supreme
Court.
Defense lawyers had told the parole board that Mr. Harding suffered
brain damage at birth that prevented him from restraining violent impulses.
Prosecutors said the crimes were well-planned, not impulsive.
Execution Pace Climbs As Appeals Run Course
March 27, 1992 - The New York Times
Arizona is checking its gas chamber. The state may need it for the first
time in 29 years on April 6, when it is scheduled to execute Donald Harding for
the killing of three men.
California may soon carry out its first execution in a quarter-century.
And Delaware executed a killer this month for the first time since 1946.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a
half-dozen Southern states have performed most of the nation's executions. But
now the pace of them is accelerating, and more states are making use of the
death penalty.
A big reason is that prisoners are exhausting their appeals in state and
Federal courts, a process that can last years, say lawyers who specialize in
death penalty cases. Back by Public Demand
At the same time, the Supreme Court is spurning last-ditch requests for
stays and curtailing condemned prisoners' access to Federal courts for appeals.
Moreover, politicians are coming under pressure to take a hard line against
crime.
"The American public wants it," said the Pennsylvania Attorney
General, Ernie Preate. "They're fed up with the criminals getting away
with 'murder' and they want to see them pay."
Every year criminals take about 22,000 lives, and every year 250 to 300
people are sentenced to die. More than 2,500 men and women are on the nation's
death rows, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Since the Supreme allowed states to resume capital punishment, 166 men
and one woman have been executed.
Prosecutors have recourse to the death penalty in 36 states, the
military and Federal courts; so far, 18 states have used it, with
three-quarters of the executions in six states: Texas, Florida, Louisiana,
Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.
"The death penalty is largely a symbolic method," said Ernest
van den Haag, a retired Fordham University professor who writes about capital
punishment and favors it. "In effect, we have a death penalty, but we
don't really carry it out." 10 Men This Year
The numbers suggest the pace of executions is increasing: 10 men have
been executed so far this year, compared with 14 all of last year and 23 in
1990.
Delaware had its first execution in almost 46 years on March 14, when
Steven Brian Pennell, 34 years old, was put to death. He was sentenced to die
for the murders of two women and had been convicted of two other killings.
In Arizona, Mr. Harding, 42, is scheduled to die next month for the 1980
robbery-slayings of three businessmen. And in California, Robert Alton Harris,
39, is condemned to die on April 21 for the 1978 murders of two teen-agers.
Mr. Van den Haag predicted that the number of executions could rise to
35 a year. But that would still be far fewer than in the mid-1930's, when
executions reached a peak of 199 one year.
In the debate on capital punishment, advocates cite polls showing that
up to 80 percent of the American people favor a death penalty. Opponents say
support drops sharply when those polled are given an alternative or asked to
specify which crimes should be punished by death.
Robert Domer, 72, of Canton, Ohio, who was on Ohio's death row in the
mid-1960's for a year and a half, said advocates of the death penalty confused
it with being tough on criminals. 'It's Grim. It's Grim.'
"Capital punishment to them means being tough, hard line,"
said Mr. Domer, who was acquitted after winning a new trial in the killing of a
hitchhiker. "Most people don't have any idea. It's grim. It's grim."
The debate is being played out at the ballot box and in the statehouse.
Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts, a Republican, is seeking to bring
back the death penalty there, where it was last used in 1947. A close vote is
anticipated.
In New York, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, a Democrat, has repeatedly rebuffed
attempts by lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty, which was last used in
the state in 1963.
The rising number of executions reflects the people's will, said Marvin
White, a Mississippi assistant attorney general who favors capital punishment.
"This is a democracy, you know," he said. "The people know what
they're doing."
Execution American Style
By John Dean
Friday, Jun. 22, 2001
The Arizona Gas Execution
In 1992, just 18 days before Harris filed his case, Arizona had executed
Don Eugene Harding in its gas chamber. Following that horrifying experience,
Arizona's attorney general and state legislature put an end to the gas chamber
as the only method of execution used by the state.
Why? An eyewitness account of Don Eugene Harding's execution — recounted
later in the Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Gomez v. U. S. District Court
for the Northern District of California — provides a breathtaking
explanation:
When the fumes enveloped Don's head he took a quick breath. A few
seconds later he again looked in my direction. His face was red and contorted
as if he were attempting to fight through tremendous pain. His mouth was pursed
shut and his jaw was clenched tight. Don then took several more quick gulps of
the fumes.
At this point Don's body started convulsing violently . . . . His face
and body turned a deep red and the veins in his temple and neck began to bulge
until I thought they might explode.
After about a minute Don's face leaned partially forward, but he was
still conscious. Every few seconds he continued to gulp in. He was shuddering
uncontrollably and his body was racked with spasms. His head continued to snap
back. His hands were clenched.
After several more minutes, the most violent of the convulsions
subsided. At this time the muscles along Don's left arm and back began
twitching in a wave-like motion under his skin. Spittle drooled from his mouth
. . . .
Don did not stop moving for approximately eight minutes, and after that
he continued to twitch and jerk for another minute. Approximately two minutes
later, we were told by a prison official that the execution was complete.
Don Harding took ten minutes and thirty-one seconds to die.
Cruel and unusual? It takes one cold, mean s.o.b. to say it is not.
COMMENTS:
Donald
Harding was obviously unrepentant for the murders he committed, given the fact
that he was cursing, swearing and giving the middle finger before his death. Although
he did suffer before he was terminated from the planet earth, I felt that he
need to feel it that way. His victims did not get a chance to appeal or say
goodbye to their families, at least he got the chance to do so.
As
I never agree to a painless death of the lethal injection, I feel the gas
chamber should be used to at least make criminals think twice before killing.
Please see this article from Grant Woods.
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