ST. LOUIS (AP) 鈥� Missouri鈥檚 governor on Monday denied clemency for , a death row inmate facing execution for sexually assaulting and killing a 9-year-old girl and leaving her body in a sinkhole.
Collings, 49, is scheduled to receive a single injection of pentobarbital at 6 p.m. CST Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, for the 2007 killing of fourth-grader Rowan Ford. It would be the 23rd execution in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri.
鈥淢r. Collings has received every protection afforded by the Missouri and United States Constitutions, and Mr. Collings鈥� conviction and sentence remain for his horrendous and callous crime,鈥� Republican Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement.
Parson鈥檚 decision likely sealed Collings鈥� fate. Earlier Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal on behalf of Collings, without comment. No additional appeals are planned, Collings' attorney, Jeremy Weis, said.
Parson's decision was not unexpected 鈥� a former sheriff, Parson has overseen 12 previous executions without granting clemency. Weis said Parson has allowed other executions to proceed for inmates with innocence claims, intellectual disabilities and for men who were 鈥渞eformed and remorseful鈥� for their crimes.
鈥淚n each case of redemption, the Governor has ignored the evidence and sought vengeance,鈥� Weis said in a statement.
Collings confessed to killing Rowan, a child who referred to him as 鈥淯ncle Chris鈥� after Collings lived for several months with the girl鈥檚 family in tiny Stella, Missouri. Rowan was killed on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was found in a sinkhole outside of town six days later. She had been strangled.
The clemency petition said an abnormality of Collings鈥� brain causes him to suffer from 鈥渇unctional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation.鈥� It also noted that he suffered from frequent and often violent abuse as a child.
鈥淭he result was a damaged human being with no guidance on how to grow into a functioning adult,鈥� the petition stated.
The petition also challenged the fairness of executing Collings when another man charged in the crime, Rowan鈥檚 stepfather, David Spears, also confessed but was allowed to plead to lesser crimes. Spears served more than seven years in prison before his release in 2015.
Collings told authorities that he drank heavily and smoked marijuana with Spears and another man in the hours before the attack on Rowan, according to court records. Collings said he picked up the sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived and assaulted her there. He said he strangled the child with a rope when he realized she recognized him.
Collings told investigators that he took the girl's body to a sinkhole. He burned the rope used in the attack, along with the clothes he was wearing and his bloodstained mattress, prosecutors said.
Spears also implicated himself in the crimes, according to court documents and the clemency petition. A transcript of Spears鈥� statement to police, cited in the petition, said he told police that Collings handed him a cord and that he killed Rowan.
鈥淚 choke her with it. I realize she鈥檚 gone. She鈥檚 ... she鈥檚 really gone,鈥� Spears said, according to the transcript. It was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where her body was found, according to court documents.
No phone listing could be found for Spears.
The Supreme Court appeal challenged the reliability of the key law enforcement witness at Collings鈥� trial, a police chief from a neighboring town who had four AWOL convictions while serving in the Army. Failure to disclose details about that criminal history at trial violated Collings鈥� right to due process, Weis contended.
鈥淗is credibility was really at the heart of the entire case against Mr. Collings," Weis said in an interview.
Three men have been executed in Missouri this year 鈥� on April 9, on June 11 and on Sept. 24. Only Alabama, with six, and Texas, with five, have performed more executions than Missouri in 2024.
Jim Salter, The Associated Press
