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

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