Commentary- Parson would enrich his legacy by showing mercy to Chris Collings (written before 6 p.m.)

By Laura Schopp

For the Missouri Independent

On Tuesday evening, the state of Missouri is scheduled to once again require state workers to kill a human being.

Christopher Collings would be the 101st person Missouri officials have executed since 1989. He was sentenced to death for the murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford in Stella, a town in southwest Missouri. We mourn Rowan’s death and grieve her loss along with all who loved her.

At the same time, Missourians should not condone the use of state violence to end Collings’ life, especially in light of irregularities which plagued the investigation and trial, Collings’ structural brain abnormalities and his brutal upbringing.

Gov. Mike Parson should intervene in an act of mercy to halt the execution and commute Collings’ sentence to life in prison.

On Nov. 9, 2007, Rowan’s stepfather David Spears and Collings both confessed to different police departments that they raped and murdered the child. Friends and acquaintances portrayed Collings as a follower and someone who would do anything for Spears — who had helped Collings get a job and provided him a place to live for several months. That includes, perhaps, even taking the fall for murder.

Collings went on trial first. His confession was the primary evidence used to convict him. No physical evidence directly implicated him in the crimes. After the state secured Collings’ conviction, prosecutors dropped the first-degree murder charge against Spears.

Laura Schopp is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, professor emerita and former chair of the University of Missouri Department of Health Psychology.

According to the Kansas City Star, Spears pled guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and hindering a felony prosecution, received an 11-year sentence and was freed in 2016.

Spears’ confession aligns closely with available evidence, and Spears himself led officials to his stepdaughter’s body in a sinkhole. A trained police cadaver dog positively signaled that the child had been in the cargo hold of a car Spears borrowed that night, consistent with his confession.

Spears had previously repeatedly lied to authorities to deflect his guilt, including lying about the whereabouts of his stepdaughter that night when his wife was at work. FBI investigators confiscated Spears’s computer hard drives and found two years’ worth of pornographic materials, some featuring violence against teenage girls and even children.

During Collings’ trial, prosecutors declined to disclose that then-Wheaton Police Chief Clinton Clark, the star witness who secured Collings’ confession, had four criminal convictions and himself had been incarcerated for several months. Clark’s criminal record would have undermined his credibility, especially given the lack of physical evidence implicating Collings.

Jurors in Collings’ trial never heard this evidence regarding the Police Chief’s own criminal record.

They also never heard evidence documenting Collings’ brain abnormalities. It wasn’t until years later that a neurologist reviewed brain MRI images, EEG and other diagnostic testing.

The neurologist attested to anatomic abnormalities in the right temporal lobe of Collings’ brain, consistent with difficulties in memory and emotional regulation, and likely the source of abnormal brain electrical activity.

The neurologist further noted that Collings’ brain showed “deficits in circuits that are responsible for functions such as awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation,” which in turn “made the effects of the
alcohol he consumed that day of the crime that much more deleterious to his capacity to exercise judgment and deliberate.”

At least three of the trial jurors later said this information would have made a difference and they would have voted for life without parole instead of death if they had known it.

Collings’ own upbringing was a nightmare of pain, violence and neglect. He was placed as a baby in foster care and was frequently physically abused and repeatedly raped as a child by caregivers and trusted others. Despite this, Collings’s years of sobriety while incarcerated are evidence that he needed help and was amenable to a different life path. He had no prior criminal record and no major prison violations.







He’s been a positive presence in prison, involved in restorative justice programs, has consistently held a prison job, and was chosen to be part of a program that trains dogs for adoption. Collings has had and continues to have a positive impact on the lives of many people, including his two daughters. With a life without parole sentence, he could continue to give back to his family and society. But a death sentence necessarily will remove this opportunity from these lives and replace it with trauma.

Taken together, Missourians should be alarmed about imposing a death sentence in light of procedural irregularities, Collings’ brain abnormalities and his brutal childhood abuse.

Humanity and simple mercy demand that Missourians deserve better. Gov. Parson would enrich his legacy by exercising such grace.

Laura Schopp is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, professor emerita and former chair of the University of Missouri Department of Health Psychology.