04 December 2024 :
December 3, 2024 - Missouri. Christopher Leroy Collings, 49, White, was executed on December 3
Collings had been sentenced to death in 2012 (see HoC 23/03/2012 and 11/04/2012) in the 2007 rape and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford.
On November 3, 2007, nine-year-old Rowan Damia Ford went missing from her house. Six days after her disappearance, Ford's body was found in a cave, and forensic reports showed that Ford was raped and strangled.
Two suspects, Christopher Leroy Collings—a family friend of Ford—and David Wesley Spears, Ford's stepfather, were arrested and charged with raping and murdering Ford. Collings was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, while Spears was sentenced to 11 years in prison for endangering the welfare of a child and covering up the crime. Court documents said it was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where the body was found. Spears also implicated himself in the crime, claiming Collings gave him a cord and that he killed Rowan, according to court docs. It wasn’t clear why Spears was allowed to plead to lesser charges. Prosecutors at the original trial didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Spears served more than seven years in prison before being released in 2015.
Collings was put to death with a single dose of pentobarbital on Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Collings spoke with a spiritual adviser who was at his side as the process began. Shortly thereafter, the inmate appeared to breathe heavily and swallow hard. After a few seconds, all movement stopped. He was officially declared dead nine minutes after the injection.
Collings becomes the 4th person executed this year in Missouri, the 101st since the state resumed executions in 1989, the 23rd in the U.S. this year and the n. 1605 since the US resumed executions in 1977.
https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-christopher-collings-f5a027c86c53725556a5a66751abd36d
https://nypost.com/2024/12/04/us-news/christopher-collings-executed-for-rape-murder-of-rowan-ford-in-2007/
