Blaine Milam
Blaine Milam | |
|---|---|
 Mug shot of Milam | |
| Born | Blaine Keith Milam December 12, 1989 Gregg County, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | September 25, 2025 (aged 35) Huntsville Unit, Texas, U.S. |
| Criminal status | Executed by lethal injection |
| Motive | Jealousy, sexual abuse |
| Conviction | Capital murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | Amora Carson, 1 |
| Date | December 2, 2008 |
| Location | Rusk County, Texas |
| Imprisoned at | Allan B. Polunsky Unit |
Blaine Keith Milam (December 12, 1989 – September 25, 2025) was an American convicted murderer who was executed in 2025 for the 2008 murder of Amora Carson, his girlfriend's 13-month-old daughter.
Early life
Milam was born on December 12, 1989, in Gregg County, Texas.[1]
Murder of Amora Carson
On December 2, 2008, Milam, then 10 days shy of his 19th birthday, called the police to report that he had found his girlfriend's 13-month-old daughter, Amora Carson, dead. At the time, Milam was engaged to Amora's mother, Jesseca Carson, and they were living in a trailer in Rusk County, Texas. Police arrived to find Amora's body with numerous severe injuries, including multiple bite marks and broken ribs. When questioned by police, both Milam and Carson initially said they had left Amora alone for about an hour before returning to find her dead. However, they later changed their stories, claiming that Amora had become possessed by demons, and that they had attempted to perform an exorcism on her.[2]
A subsequent autopsy indicated that Amora had been beaten, strangled, sexually mutilated, and had twenty-four human bitemarks covering her entire body in what the medical examiner called the worst case of brutality he had ever seen.[3] In 2010, Milam was sentenced to death.[4] After his conviction and death sentence, Milam continued to maintain his innocence, arguing that Carson was responsible for Amora's murder, and that she was responsible for claiming that Amora was possessed by demons. Milam's lawyers later attempted to challenge his death sentence, both on the grounds that it was based on discredited forensic bite mark analysis, and that Milam himself was intellectually disabled and thus could not be constitutionally executed.[5] According to the state, it was Milam who inflicted the injuries on Amora while Carson watched and did not intervene. Carson was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the crime.
Execution
Milam's execution was stayed in 2019 and 2021[6][7] to permit him to appeal his conviction and sentence, but these appeals failed, and the trial court had found that Milam was not intellectually disabled. The Supreme Court denied Milam's application for a stay of his execution on his scheduled execution date, September 25, 2025. Milam was executed by lethal injection later that day, at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas. In his final statement before his execution he did not express remorse for his crimes and instead thanked his supporters, professed his Christian faith and expressed gratitude to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for opening its prison chaplaincy program to death row inmates: "I would like to give a special thanks to all of you for showing me kindness, compassion, empathy, love and support and believing in me. Thank you for everything that y'all have done. I would also like to thank the directors of chaplaincy of TDCJ for opening up the faith based program on death row and allowed me to be accepted into it to find Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And if any of you would like to see me again, I implore all of you no matter who you are to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and we will meet again. I love you all, bring me home Jesus."[2][4][8] His last meal consisted of a cheeseburger, oven-fried potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, sliced bread, scrambled eggs, country gravy, a sausage patty, pears, biscuits, tea and water.[9]
In popular culture
The Investigation Discovery network aired an episode of Werner Herzog's series On Death Row titled "Blaine Milam" that covered the case in Season 2, Episode 3, broadcast on September 17, 2013.[10][11][12]
See also
References
- ^ "Blaine Milam". Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
- ^ a b Myers, Amanda Lee. "Double execution: Texas, Alabama execute inmates within minutes of each other". USA TODAY. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
- ^ "Respondent's brief in opposition to original petition and motion for stay of execution" (PDF). www.supremecourt.gov.
- ^ a b Noriega, Travis (September 24, 2025). "Rusk County man convicted of toddler's 'exorcism' death has been executed". KLTV. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
- ^ "Texas man facing execution for fatally beating 13-month-old girl during 'exorcism'". ABC News. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
- ^ "Execution date set for man convicted in death of East Texas toddler". KLTV. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
- ^ "Appeals court stays Texas' first scheduled 2021 execution". San Francisco Chronicle. January 15, 2021. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
- ^ Runnels, Ayden (September 25, 2025). "Texas executes man convicted of killing 13-month-old girl in 2008". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
- ^ Tyler, Ketk (September 25, 2025). "Texas man executed for brutal 'exorcism' murder of 13-month-old". Yahoo News. Retrieved September 29, 2025.
- ^ Myers, Amanda Lee (September 23, 2025). "Double execution: Texas, Alabama to execute inmates at same time this week". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 25, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
- ^ "On Death Row S02 E03: Blaine Milam | Werner Herzog". May 21, 2018. Archived from the original on September 28, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Watch On Death Row Season 2, Episode 3: Blaine Milam | Peacock". Peacock. Archived from the original on March 25, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
External links
- Blaine Milam at IMDb