Missouri inmate facing execution tonight in little girl’s death

Missouri’s governor has denied clemency for a convicted killer who raped and killed a nine-year-old girl in southwest Missouri in 2007. Barring intervention from a federal judge or the U-S Supreme Court, 49-year-old Chris Collings will be executed by lethal injection tonight (Tuesday) at the state’s maximum-security prison in southeast Missouri’s Bonne Terre. Governor Mike Parson has rejected clemency, saying Collings abducted nine-year-old Rowan Ford near Stella, raped her, strangled her with chicken wire and threw her into a sinkhole. The governor notes the case has been reviewed in the state trial court, Missouri Supreme Court, federal courts and the U-S 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.