Texas man facing execution for fatally beating 13-month-old girl during 'exorcism'

HOUSTON — A Texas man faces execution Thursday for killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during a torturous ordeal the couple said was part of an “exorcism” to expel a demon from the child’s body

HOUSTON — A Texas man faces execution Thursday for killing his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter during a torturous ordeal the couple said was part of an “exorcism” to expel 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 in East Texas.

Milam was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. At around the same time Milam was to be put to death, authorities in Alabama were planning to execute Geoffrey West for fatally shooting a gas station employee during a 1997 robbery.

Milam has claimed he is innocent, blaming then-girlfriend Jesseca Carson for the killing and alleging she was the one who claimed the girl was possessed by a demon. She was tried separately from Milam and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of capital murder for helping Milam. Both were 18 at the time.

Prosecutors said Milam savagely beat the girl with a hammer and also bit, strangled, and mutilated her over a period of 30 hours.