Forgive me if I cannot find any sympathy for a man whose best reason not to be executed is that he confessed because he was afraid people were going to kill him if they put him back out on the street.
You can't blame Chris Collings' public defender attorneys. When your client brutally raped and murdered a nine-year-old girl and then threw her body into a pit, it is highly unlikely you are going to find any reason for people to sympathize with your plight.
The unanimous decision by the Missouri Supreme Court Tuesday to reject Chris Collings' death row appeal is just the first step in what is likely to be a long road, one that will take years, with no guarantee that Collings will ever receive the ultimate punishment for his crimes.
The crime that Collings committed is one that shocked the small community of Stella, population just a little over 100, and all of Newton County to the core. One day, Rowan Ford, a fourth grader at Triway Elementary School, had been a fixture in the community, the little girl who was always riding her bike up and down the city streets, the girl who always arrived early at school and was one of the last to leave.
For those who lived in Stella, those visions of Rowan from the days before November 2, 2007, are etched just as vividly in their minds now as they were more than six and half years ago.
For the next several years, each time an appeal for Collings is held, those memories will rise to the surface.
On this first go-round, the judges rejected the Wheaton man's attorneys' claims that he had not confessed voluntarily, that it shouldn't have been first degree murder because he didn't take the time to "coolly reflect" upon his actions between the time he raped Rowan Ford and when he strangled her and that the prosecuting attorney was guilty of misconduct when he simulated that strangulation and showed "gruesome" photos of her lifeless body to the jury.
For those who think that there is no punishment harsh enough to fit these crimes, the Missouri Supreme Court's decision has kept Chris Collings on the road to the most fitting punishment available.
It will be years, however, before that journey is complete.
Don't be sorry, this was well written. Thanks , it reflects what many people feel but can't find the words.
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