A convicted killer from southwest Missouri who raped and killed a nine-year-old girl more than 17 years ago near Stella will be executed Tuesday evening, barring intervention from a federal judge or the U.S. Supreme Court.
Governor Mike Parson has rejected clemency for 49-year-old Chris Collings, describing the 2007 rape and murder as a “horrendous and callous crime.” Collings is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tonight after 6 pm at the state’s maximum-security prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre.
Governor Parson says Collings abducted nine-year-old Rowan Ford, raped her, strangled her with chicken wire and threw her into a sinkhole. The governor notes the case has been reviewed in numerous courts, including federal courts and the Missouri Supreme Court.
The “Springfield News-Leader” reports Collings’ defense attorneys argued at trial that Collings never intended to kill Rowan that night and deserved a life prison sentence, not the death penalty. The newspaper also quotes defense attorneys at trial as telling the jury that Collings was raped at least twice in foster care growing up.
