Texas man faces execution for fatally beating 13-month-old during exorcism

A Texas man, Blaine Milam, 35, faces execution Thursday evening for the December 2008 death of his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter, Amora Carson, in what authorities described as part of an exorcism to expel a demon from the child’s body.

Milam was condemned to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. Prosecutors said he savagely beat Amora with a hammer and, over roughly 30 hours, bit, strangled and mutilated her. A forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy found multiple skull fractures along with broken arms, legs, ribs and numerous bite marks; the pathologist testified he could not determine a specific cause of death because the girl sustained so many potentially fatal injuries.

Milam has claimed he is innocent, telling investigators that his girlfriend, Jesseca Carson, who was 18 at the time, claimed Amora was possessed by a demon. Carson was tried separately and convicted of capital murder for helping Milam and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with both defendants being 18 when the crime occurred.

Milam’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing that bite-mark evidence used at trial is now considered unreliable and that DNA evidence tying him to Amora’s body has come under dispute. They also argued that he is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. Prosecutors and the state have rejected those claims, noting prior court rulings and ongoing DNA analyses that keep Milam connected to the crime scene.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied Milam's request to commute the sentence to a lesser penalty. Milam’s name has appeared on execution calendars before, with dates in 2019 and 2021 that were stayed.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office said in court documents that Milam’s claims of intellectual disability have been rejected in previous rulings and that a recent review of DNA evidence used at his trial “continues to forensically tie him to Amora’s body.” The office added that even if bite-mark and DNA evidence were excluded, other evidence pointed to his guilt, including his efforts to hide evidence and a confession he allegedly made to a nurse after his arrest.

Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson, who tried the case with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, told The Associated Press in 2019 that authorities initially treated Milam and Carson as grieving parents. But Carson later told investigators that Milam had said Amora was “possessed by a demon” because “God was tired of her lying to Milam,” according to court records. Jimerson said the exorcism claim did not exonerate Milam but may have been used to cover up the crime.

The use of bite-mark evidence has been called into question in recent years, with a 2016 report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology saying bitemark analysis “is clearly scientifically unreliable at present.” Jimerson said he still couldn't pinpoint a motive but believed the exorcism claim was a way to explain the killings to themselves and to avoid confronting the brutality of what happened.

If the execution is carried out, Milam would be the fifth person put to death this year in Texas, historically the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. If both of Thursday’s executions take place, that would bring this year’s total to 33 death sentences carried out nationwide. Florida leads the nation this year with a record 12 executions conducted so far in 2025, with two more scheduled in the state by mid-October.

Geoffrey West in Alabama was also slated for execution around the same time for fatally shooting a gas-station employee during a 1997 robbery, illustrating how concurrent capital punishment schedules unfold across states.