Formal sentencing hearing for Rowan Ford killer set for May 11

The judge's decision on whether or not he will follow the jury's recommendation and give Chris Collings the death penalty for the November 2007 murder of nine-year-old Rowan Ford of Stella has been scheduled for May 11.

The jury took only 45 minutes Friday to recommend the death penalty for Collings:

Circuit Judge Mary Sheffield does not have to follow the jury's recommendation for a death.

Sheffield set a sentencing hearing for May 11.  Between now and then, she'll likely receive the usual motions from defense attorneys for a new trial or to ignore the death penalty recommendation.

Post-trial appeals in a death penalty case usually take years.  Missouri has 46 prisoners on death row (see link at the left).  The oldest case is from 1982.   The cases of the 68 men executed in Missouri since 1989 took between six and 14 years from sentencing to lethal injection.

The second man accused of Rowan's rape and murder, David Spears, is scheduled for trial in Waynesville in November with a jury from Clay County, which is also on the north side of Kansas City like Platte County.  Spears was married to Rowan's mother at the time, but she divorced him shortly after Rowan was murdered.