The Missouri Supreme Court will listen to oral arguments Wednesday during the first step in Chris Collings' efforts to avoid the death penalty for the Nov. 2, 2007, rape and murder of nine-year-old Triway Elementary School student Rowan Ford.
The government filed briefs with the court describing the case and refuting Collings' attorneys' arguments.
The Collings brief, which was filed earlier, indicated that he had been used by Wheaton police officer Clinton Clark, who was supposedly acting as his friend while leading him into confessing his role in the murder. The government's brief says that was not the case. Clark not only had been a longtime friend of Collings, but until Collings confessed, thought that Rowan Ford's stepfather, David Spears, was the killer.
