U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Missouri convicted murderer’s death row case

Missouri’s bishops said citizens can reach out to the governor’s office to express opposition to the pending execution of Christopher Collings, who was convicted of the 2007 abduction, rape, torture and murder of a 9-year-old girl. Collings is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3, 2024. / Credit: Courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections

St. Louis, Mo., Dec 2, 2024 / 18:15 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a Missouri death row prisoner’s appeal on the eve of his execution date, while lawyers for the condemned man argue that he was a frequent victim of physical and sexual abuse in his youth and suffered judgment-impairing brain injuries as a result.

The prisoner, Christopher Collings, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2007 abduction, rape, torture, and murder of a 9-year-old girl, Rowan Ford.

Police said Collings confessed to killing Ford after raping her in rural Stella, Missouri, in the far southwest corner of the state. Collings allegedly burned the evidence of his crime, including the rope used to strangle the child, and dumped her body in a sinkhole.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Collings’ case in a brief Dec. 2 order. Barring an intervention by the Missouri Supreme Court or Republican Gov. Mike Parson — who has never granted clemency during his governorship — Collings will be executed Tuesday by lethal injection. 

Collings’ clemency petition filed with Parson states that Collings’ brain is “multiply injured” and “structurally abnormal,” which causes him to suffer from “functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation.” It also relates in detail the frequent and often violent physical and sexual abuse that Collings allegedly experienced as a child.

The Missouri Catholic Conference, which advocates policy on behalf of the state’s bishops, had urged Catholics to contact the governor to express their opposition to Collings’ execution. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by Pope Francis in 2018, describes the death penalty as “inadmissible” and an “attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267).

“The death and other circumstances of Rowan’s murder are tragic and abhorrent, and though her death was a great injustice, it still would also be an injustice if the state carries out a man’s execution in lieu of confining him to life imprisonment,” the Missouri bishops said in a statement last month. 

“The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to the death penalty because it disregards the sanctity and dignity of human life,” they said.

The bishops said that citizens can reach out to the governor’s office to express opposition to the pending execution.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey had in April announced that his office had requested that the Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date for Collings, claiming “no court has ever found any legal errors” with his conviction.

In contrast to the petition sent to Parson, the petition to the U.S. Supreme Court sent on Collings’ behalf did not mention the alleged abuse Collings endured, nor his brain development, but focused mainly on procedural issues.

Collings’ confession, which became a key piece of evidence at his trial, allegedly took place during an unrecorded conversation with now-deceased Wheaton Police Chief Clinton Clark. David Spears, the stepfather of Ford, the victim, also admitted to playing a primary role in the crime, though he was ultimately only charged with lesser offenses and eventually released from prison in 2015.