midnight on April 6, 1992. Martin Concannon's widow elected not to view the execution, but Warden Roger Crist, then-Attorney General Grant Woods, Harding's religious advisor, and six reporters were witnesses. Harding ate a last meal consisting of fried eggs, several strips of bacon, toast with butter and honey, and orange juice. At approximately 12:05 a.m., Harding was led into the gas chamber. When the chamber was sealed, a curtain was lifted to allow witnesses to look at Harding; Attorney General Woods claimed that Harding then looked at him and began yelling obscenities through the glass. Reporters claimed that Harding also made obscene gestures with his middle finger towards Attorney General Woods as the gas spread in the chamber. Harding's attorney described the execution as "slow, painful, degrading, and inhumane," claiming that Harding convulsed violently and repeatedly gasped for breath while his body shuddered with spasms for several minutes until he went still. Ultimately, Harding was pronounced dead 10 minutes and 31 seconds after the hydrocyanic gas was released into the chamber. Harding was the first person executed in Arizona after the death penalty moratorium imposed by the 1972 Furman v. Georgia ruling was lifted, and he was the first in the state since the 1963 gas chamber execution of Manuel Silvas. Aftermath Harding's execution generated controversy over the nature and duration of his death; likewise, it provided momentum to replace the gas chamber with lethal injection. Arizona State Representative Lela Steffey had proposed the change from the gas chamber earlier in 1992 due to concerns about air pollution involved in venting lethal gas after an execution, and Steffey stated that polls showed that a majority of Arizonans supported the switch to lethal injection; however, the movement did not gain momentum until after Harding's execution. Further propelling this move to change execution methods was the equally controversial and lengthy gas chamber execution of Robert Alton Harris in California on April 21, 1992. On April 25, the Arizona State House of Representatives passed a bill 41-7 to allow Arizona's death row inmates at the time to choose between the gas chamber and lethal injection. All death row inmates sentenced subsequent to the law change would not have the option to choose the gas chamber. During the 1992 election, a referendum allowed Arizonans to vote on whether or not the state should adopt lethal injection; voters approved the change in execution method. Prisoners