A Texas man is scheduled to be executed Thursday for killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during what he and his partner described as an “exorcism” at a trailer home in Rusk County.
Blaine Milam, 35, was convicted of the December 2008 murder of Amora Carson. Prosecutors said Milam beat the child with a hammer and also bit, strangled, and mutilated her during a 30-hour ordeal.
A forensic pathologist testified that Amora suffered multiple skull fractures, broken arms, legs, and ribs, and bite marks. The injuries were so extensive that the doctor could not determine a specific cause of death.
Milam has maintained his innocence, blaming his then-girlfriend Jesseca Carson. She was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Both were 18 at the time.
In appeals, Milam’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing his conviction relied on “now-discredited” bite mark evidence and unreliable DNA results. His lawyers also said he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for execution.
“It was Carson who caused her daughter’s death. There is no credible evidence that Milam played any role in it,” his attorneys wrote in their petition, according to NBC News.
Courts have previously rejected those claims. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied his request to commute the sentence. The Texas Attorney General’s Office said DNA evidence still links Milam to the victim and that earlier rulings dismissed his disability claims.
Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson said in 2019 that investigators initially viewed Milam and Carson as grieving parents. Carson later told authorities Milam said Amora was “possessed by a demon” because “God was tired of her lying to Milam,” according to court records.
Jimerson said he did not believe the exorcism claim, calling it an attempt to hide the crime. “It’s … very hard to confront the idea that someone would derive their gratification from the torture of a baby,” Jimerson said.
If carried out, Milam’s execution would be the fifth this year in Texas and the 33rd nationwide. Florida has conducted 12 executions so far in 2025, the most of any state.
