Texas executes Blaine Milam

Blaine Milam executed for 2008 killing of toddler in East Texas

East Texas death row inmate Blaine Milam has been executed for the 2008 exorcism-style murder of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson. He was convicted in the December 2008 exorcism-style killing of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson in Rusk County.

Milam received the lethal injection at 6:19 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. this evening. His execution follows a decade of legal challenges as his defense team challenged the use of bite mark evidence and raised concerns about intellectual disability.

Milam's legal team petitioned this Tuesday for a writ of habeas corpus to stay the execution, but that petition was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

His team continued to claim Milam's innocence and that Jesseca Bain Carson, Amora's mother and Milam's ex-fiance, was responsible for the "brutal and tragic murder of her 13-month-old daughter, but Milam faces the ultimate punishment for her crime."

Milam's lawyers also have said to this day that he has an intellectual disability based on many experts. In his 2010 trial, the court did not find him to be intellectually disabled.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a person with an intellectual disability cannot be executed.

While courts have rejected Milam’s claim of intellectual disability, his lawyers argued to SCOTUS that during pretrial testing he had IQ scores of 68 and 71, showing significant cognitive impairments and placing him at a high risk of false confession.

Also this week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously declined to grant Milam clemency, according to the Texas Tribune.

This was Milam's 3rd execution date after he was granted 2 prior stays of execution— 1 in January 2019, the other in January 2021. He was 18 years old at the time of his conviction.

Milam is the fifth Texas death row inmate to be executed this year. He is the 1st inmate to receive the lethal injection for a capital murder committed in Rusk County. The method of execution dates back to December 1982.

The most recent person from East Texas to receive the death penalty was Tracy Beatty in November 2022. He was executed for strangling his 62-year-old mother to death in 2003.

CASE OVERVIEW

On Dec. 2, 2008, Milam and Carson called law enforcement to report Carson's daughter's death. The Houston Chronicle reported that the 2 told officials they went to a pawn shop and came back to their trailer to find the child deceased.

Law enforcement arrived at the scene and found the 23-pound child was stiff and in rigor. The medical examiner ruled the child's death a homicide. Carson admitted she was in their trailer when Milam performed an "exorcism" on the child, causing multiple injuries leading to her death.

An autopsy revealed the child had also been sexually assaulted, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Houston Chronicle reported in 2010 the child had multiple human bite marks from head to toe, 18 rib fractures, bleeding under her scalp, a lacerated liver, fractures on the back of her head, a broken arm and leg, and a bleeding blood vessel in her neck, indicating possible strangulation.

CONVICTION AND SENTENCING

Milam, a registered sex offender, was convicted by a Montgomery County jury of capital murder and sentenced to death in May 2010. Jesseca Bain Carson received life in prison without the possibility of parole when she was found guilty of capital murder in April 2011.

A Rusk County jury concluded Carson played a role in her daughter's death when she allowed her child to endure physical torture for 30 hours during an attempted exorcism at the hands of Milam. She is serving out her sentence at the Crain Unit in Gatesville.

NEXT PLANNED EXECUTION

As of Sept. 25, the next inmate facing execution is fellow East Texan Robert Roberson, who was convicted in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in Anderson County. His execution date is scheduled for Oct. 16.

Roberson has long maintained his innocence, arguing he was convicted based on the "junk science" of shaken baby syndrome.

Milam becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 596th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Milam becomes the 79th condemned inmate to be executed since Greg Abbott became governor on January 21, 2015.

Milam becomes the 33rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,640th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: CBS News, Staff; Rick Halperin, September 25, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Indiana's governor turns down clemency request, says execution planned for Thursday will go forward

Indiana’s governor turned down a clemency request and says an execution planned for Thursday will go forward against a man who killed his girlfriend’s two children in 2010 Indiana's governor turned down a clemency request Monday and said an execution planned for this week would go forward for a man who set a fire that killed his girlfriend's two children in 2010. Gov. Mike Braun said he would follow the Indiana Parole Board's recommendation to let the death sentence stand for Jeffrey Weisheit. “The Indiana Department of Correction will continue preparations to carry out the court-ordered sentence of execution” Thursday, said Braun, a Republican.

Indiana executes Jeffrey Weisheit

An Indiana man who admitted killing his girlfriend's two children was executed early Thursday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled for the same day in the U.S. Jeffrey Weisheit killed the children, ages 8 and 5, by setting fire to his girlfriend's house in the Evansville area in 2010. The remains of 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch were recovered from the ruins of a fire at their home in the Evansville area. Alyssa’s body was in a closet. Caleb’s body was on a mattress, restrained with duct tape. A railroad flare was in his underwear, and another was under his body. The children’s mother, Lisa Lynch, was at work at the time. She was in a relationship with Weisheit, but it was breaking down, investigators said. Weisheit spent 13 years on death row after his conviction. Weisheit died at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The lethal injection started just after midnight, and he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m., according to Noelle Russell, ...

USA | 3 states to carry out rare triple execution this week

If all three executions are carried out as planned, it will be the second triple execution in the U.S. this year, reflecting an overall uptick in the death penalty since the beginning of 2025. Three states are planning to carry out a rare triple execution this week on Nov. 5. Indiana is set to execute Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, by lethal injection for the 2010 murders of his girlfriend's two children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb. The children were burned alive in their home.

Vigil planned ahead of high-profile Oklahoma inmate's execution

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — After the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for a high-profile death row inmate in Oklahoma, a local organization is protesting his execution. James Pavatt was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old Oklahoma City advertising executive and father of two. Evidence presented at Pavatt's trial showed that he began an affair with Andrew's wife, Brenda Andrew, in 2001. Prosecutors argued that the murder was especially cruel and that Pavatt killed Andrew for an $800,000 insurance policy.

‘I’m Not Incompetent’ Christa Pike’s execution doctor, Mark Fowler, speaks.

Dr. Mark Fowler knew something was wrong after 45 minutes passed without word from the warden. In most cases, executions take no more than ten minutes. When he was summoned from his waiting room to the chamber next door, he saw 50-year-old Christa Pike, who’d received two lethal doses of pentobarbital that night, strapped to a gurney, gasping for air. “She’s not dead,” Fowler recalls the warden saying. “I thought, Well, in human beings there’s a spectrum of responses to medications and we’ll give it a few more minutes,” he says. Another half-hour passed. Fowler worried she might survive with irreversible brain damage. “She’s going to be in a permanent vegetative state with a quarter-million dollars in medical expenses.” He came back in and diagnosed her as comatose. The deputy commissioner ordered the execution to stop. Now, instead of taking part in Pike’s death, Fowler’s job was to bring her back to life.

Indiana governor rejects brain scans for death row inmate ahead of execution

Gov. Mike Braun is still weighing Jeffrey Weisheit’s clemency request, however. Gov. Mike Braun’s administration will not allow death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit to undergo additional brain scans before his scheduled execution next week. The decision follows weeks of legal efforts by his attorneys to obtain additional medical evidence for his clemency case. Braun’s general counsel, Stephanie Flittner, met with Weisheit’s legal team Wednesday to discuss the testing and his pending clemency request.

Indiana Parole Board hears testimony on clemency for man scheduled for Nov. 5 execution

Jeffrey Weisheit set his house on fire in 2010, killing his girlfriend’s two young children he was watching. The Indiana Parole Board will now make a recommendation in the coming days to Governor Mike Braun on whether to grant clemency to condemned killer Jeffrey Weisheit. Jeffrey is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 5 for the 2010 murder of his girlfriend's 2 children in Vanderburgh County.

Iran | 10 executed in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Karaj

Four prisoners, including an Afghan national, were executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. All four had been sentenced to death under Iran’s qisas (retributive justice) laws on murder charges. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, one of the executed prisoners was identified as Gol Agha Eskandari, an Afghan national. Eskandari had been convicted of murder following a dispute between neighbors in the Khorasan Square area of Tehran in July 2024 and subsequently sentenced to death.

Florida executes Jesse Guardado

Man convicted of 2004 killing is put to death in Florida’s 19th execution this year, tying a record Florida carried out a record-tying 19th execution of the year in an unusual instance of 3 states administering the death penalty on the same day. Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at a state prison in Starke. He had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80, and other valuables to buy drugs. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.

Texas | Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing San Benito police lieutenant

A Cameron County jury recommended the death penalty for Rogelio Martinez for killing a San Benito police lieutenant during a police chase in Brownsville. Martinez stared forward as the judge announced the recommendation. Lt. Milton Resendez's family told Martinez in court that their lives will never be the same. Resendez's wife and siblings walked past cameras and declined to speak with reporters. Inside the courtroom, where no audio or video recording was allowed, Resendez's sister Jackie raised her voice at Martinez during impact statements.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog