Missouri completes execution “only” 17 years after child murder

As reported in this AP article, Missouri this evening completed an execution of a man who sexually assaulted and strangled a 9-year-old girl in 2007. Here are some of the details:

Rowan Ford knew Christopher Collings as “Uncle Chris” after he spent several months living with her family. On Tuesday, Collings was executed for sexually assaulting and killing the child, then dumping her body in a sinkhole outside a small Missouri town.

Collings, 49, was put to death with a single dose of pentobarbital on Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. The execution was the 23rd in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri. Only Alabama with six and Texas with five have performed more executions in 2024….

Collings’ fate was sealed Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court turned aside an appeal and Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency…. Parson, in a statement, said he hopes that “all those who knew and loved Rowan may find peace in knowing that justice has been done.”

Rowan was a fourth-grader described by teachers at Collings’ trial as a hard-working and happy student, a lover of Barbie who had her room painted pink. Collings was a friend of Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, and lived for several months in 2007 at the home Rowan shared with her mother, Colleen Munson, and Spears. Collings sometimes helped Rowan with her homework.

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 still-sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived, and assaulted her. Collings planned to take Rowan back home, leading her outside the camper facing away from him so that she couldn’t identify him, he said in his confession. But when moonlight lit up the darkness, Rowan was able to see Collings, he told police. He said he “freaked out,” grabbed a rope from a nearby pickup truck, and strangled her.

Given that modern average times between death sentences and executions is now about 20 years, it seems notable that Missouri completed this execution “only” 17 years after the offense.