Missouri conducts fourth execution of 2024, protesters demand reform
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A group of protestors braved the elements in Columbia on Tuesday night to protest the execution of a Missouri man.
Christopher Collings, 49, was executed on Tuesday for sexually assaulting and killing a 9-year-old girl and then dumping her body in a sinkhole. Collings was a family friend of the victim, Rowan Ford, who was in fourth grade at the time of her death in November 2007, according to the Associated Press. He was injected with a single dose of pentobarbital on Tuesday and pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., the AP reported. His death has reignited debates about the death penalty across the state.
More than half a dozen people stood outside the Boone County Courthouse for an hour on Tuesday asking for the state to stop executing people. They held signs asking the state to spare Collins's life and abolish the death penalty.
“We are concerned about procedural irregularities in his trial,” protestor Laura-Chopp Disanto told ABC 17 News. “We are concerned that the jury never heard very important evidence and some jurors have actually said that hearing all of the evidence would have changed their mind and they would have voted for life without parole.
“In Chris's case, he was repeatedly raped as a child. All the adults in his life failed to protect him. He was beaten very badly in foster care. He bounced around from one place to another. And for us to say that he has equal moral culpability of someone who didn't get raped repeatedly as a child, who wasn't beaten repeatedly as a child, that just doesn't hold water for me.”
Darrell Moore was the Green County prosecutor for several years and worked with the office for more than two decades. During that time he tried multiple death penalty cases. Moore said while it is sad that some cases need to get to that point, it is a necessary tool for prosecutors.
“It's a very sobering experience and has to be taken very seriously. I mean, it's the ultimate punishment under the law. So as a prosecutor, when you have a situation like the one that's scheduled for tonight, you have to look at it,” Moore said. “Not every murder in the first degree is going to qualify for the death penalty. So, one of the first things you've got to do is set emotions aside to look at the facts of the case, What happened here and how strong is your case. One of those 17 aggravating factors applies in this case.”
Since 1976, 101 people have been executed in Missouri, which is the fifth-highest total in the country, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. Oklahoma has the second most at 126. Only Texas has more with 591.
Moore said while Missouri has the fifth-most executions in the country, getting the death penalty is still rare.
“Missouri law requires that a jury find at least one of 17 aggravating factors, and you don't get to submit all 17,” Moore said. “One of the aggravating factors is that you commit the murder in the first degree while you're engaged in the crime of rape, sodomy, kidnapping. Of course, in this case, you have rape and I guess kidnapping. So the statute clearly defines when you can seek the death penalty. You have to have one of those 17 and the jury has to find one of those 17 applies.”
Collings marks Missouri’s fourth execution of the year, which matches last year's total. At least one person has been executed in Missouri every year since 2019. However, 2014 saw the state's most executions within a year at 10.
“I would like to see the death penalty abolished because it is expensive and error-prone and it's unjust. Simply put, it doesn't serve Missourians well. It is not a deterrent. It's certainly not a deterrent in most of the cases in which we execute people. There's there's no proven value to taking another life under any circumstances. And that's a bright, bright white line morally for me,” Disanto said.
Green believes while “it’s not totally impossible for an innocent person to be convicted” prosecutors will only seek the death penalty if they have a solid case with multiple aggregating factors.
“I think it's important for people to know that prosecutors take responsibility in making a decision on whether or not to seek the death penalty. But ultimately, a jury of 12 people get to decide that in most cases and that's our safeguard is those 12 people,” Green said. “When you take 12 ordinary people who aren't used to dealing with, let's be real prosecutors and police they see all kinds of criminal activity and all kinds of depravity, but the average person brought in the jury box to hear a case like that, they're not exposed to this. They're not used to this on a daily basis. So it's very shocking to their system. And yet they do their duty following the law and their oath and they're able to make a decision and I think we have to respect that as a society.”
