A Texas man is scheduled for execution Thursday for killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during what the couple claimed was an “exorcism” to remove a demon from the child’s body.
Blaine Milam, 35, was condemned for the December 2008 murder of Amora Carson at his trailer in Rusk County, East Texas. He is set to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. At the same time, authorities in Alabama plan to execute Geoffrey West for fatally shooting a gas station employee during a 1997 robbery.
Milam claims he is innocent, blaming then-girlfriend Jesseca Carson, who allegedly declared the girl possessed. Carson, tried separately, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of capital murder. Both were 18 at the time.
Prosecutors said Milam beat the girl with a hammer, strangled her, bit her, and mutilated her over 30 hours. A forensic pathologist found multiple skull fractures, broken arms, legs, ribs, and numerous bite marks. The pathologist could not determine a single cause of death due to the sheer number of injuries.
Milam’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, citing “now-discredited bite mark evidence” and unreliable DNA evidence. They also argue Milam is intellectually disabled and ineligible for execution. In their petition, they claim Carson’s religious delusions and neurological disorder caused her to attack her daughter. “It was Carson who caused her daughter’s death. There is no credible evidence that Milam played any role in it,” the lawyers said.
State and federal courts previously denied Milam’s attempts to stay his execution. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also rejected his request to commute the sentence. Milam had previous execution dates in 2019 and 2021 that were stayed.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office states Milam’s claims of intellectual disability were rejected, and DNA evidence still ties him to Amora. Even if bite mark and DNA evidence were excluded, authorities say other evidence—including attempts to hide evidence and a confession to a nurse—supports his guilt.
Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson said authorities initially treated Milam and Carson as grieving parents. But Carson later told investigators that Milam claimed Amora was “possessed by a demon because God was tired of her lying to Milam,” according to court records.
The use of bite mark evidence has been questioned in recent years. A 2016 report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology called bite mark analysis “clearly scientifically unreliable.” Jimerson said he believes the exorcism claim was a cover-up. “It’s very hard to confront the idea that someone would derive gratification from the torture of a baby. That is really something that diminishes all of us,” he said.
If executed, Milam would be the fifth person put to death in Texas this year, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. If both Thursday executions proceed, 33 death sentences would have been carried out nationwide in 2025. Florida leads with 12 executions, with two more scheduled by mid-October.
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