JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday set a December execution date for Christopher Collings, who was convicted of raping and killing a 9-year-old girl nearly two decades ago.
Collings is scheduled to die by a chemical injection at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. He was convicted in the death of Rowan Ford, a fourth-grade student who went missing from her home in Stella, Missouri, on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was found in a cave six days later. Police said the child had been strangled.
A message was left Tuesday with Collings’ attorney.
Two men have been executed in Missouri this year—Brian Dorsey on April 9 and David Hosier on June 11. A third execution is scheduled on Sept. 24 for Marcellus Williams.
Williams has long claimed innocence and St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell has filed a motion to vacate the sentence, arguing new evidence shows that someone else’s DNA—but not Williams’s—was on the knife used in the killing.
An evidentiary hearing for Williams begins on Aug. 21.
