The execution date has been set for a man convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl.
Christopher Collings is scheduled to be executed by chemical injection at 6 p.m. on December 3 at the Bonne Terre State Prison in Missouri.
He was convicted in connection with the death of Rowan Ford, a fourth-grader who disappeared from her home in Stella, Missouri, on November 3, 2007.
Her body was found in a cave six days later. Police said the child had been strangled.
Collings’ request to reduce his sentence to life imprisonment was denied in 2014. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Collings’ request for leave to appeal. The next day, the state filed a motion to set an execution date.
Two men were executed in Missouri this year: Brian Dorsey on April 9 and David Hosier on June 11. A third execution is scheduled for September 24: that of Marcellus Williams.
Williams has long maintained his innocence, and St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell has filed a motion to overturn the conviction, arguing that new evidence shows that the knife used in the murder had another person’s DNA — not Williams’ — on it.
An evidentiary hearing for Williams begins on August 21.
News agencies contributed to this article.