After four months without executions in Texas, the State put Blaine Milam to death on September 25, 2025. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court of the United States denied his petition and application for a stay of execution. Milam was 35 years old and spent 15 years on death row. He is the fifth person executed by the State of Texas this year and the 596th since 1982.
Milam was convicted of killing 13-month-old Amora Carson in 2008 in Rusk County. Jessica Carson, the baby’s mother, was sentenced to life in prison. Both Milam and Carson were 18 years old at the time of Amora’s death.
Due to extensive news coverage of the case, his trial was moved 140 miles south to Montgomery County. A jury there sentenced Milam to death in 2010 under Texas’s law of parties, which holds everyone involved in a crime equally responsible and allows a jury to convict a person based on the conduct of another.
Milam also had execution dates in 2019 and 2021 but received stays from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) to consider evidence of his intellectual disability and discredited bite mark evidence. The CCA later denied relief on those claims, despite an amicus brief filed by The Arc and other organizations that advocate for individuals with intellectual disability. According to The Arc:
The state’s initial expert concluded that Mr. Milam met the standard for an ID diagnosis, but the state later retained a new expert who disagreed. Despite Mr. Milam’s lawyers presenting reports from four medical experts on clinical errors in the evaluation done by the state’s new expert, that opinion was adopted, and the trial court decided to move forward with Mr. Milam’s execution.
On Monday, September 22, 2025, the CCA denied Milam’s motion for a stay of execution. It also denied relief on five claims he raised in a subsequent habeas petition, including that his conviction rests on prejudicial forensic evidence and false testimony in violation of due process. The court dismissed the petition on procedural grounds without reviewing the merits of the claims raised.
Milam filed a habeas petition and an application for a stay of execution with the Supreme Court of the United States, which were denied.
On the same night, Alabama executed Geoffrey West for the murder of Margaret Parrish Berry during a robbery in 1997. Her son, Will Berry, asked Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to stop the execution, saying he doesn’t want anyone else to die.
“I forgive this guy, and I don’t want him to die,” Berry said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want the state to take revenge in my name or my family’s name for my mother.”
Will Berry had exchanged letters with West and sought to meet with him in person, but the prison system denied that request, citing security regulations.
To date in 2025, 10 states have executed 33 people. Florida alone has put 12 people to death this year.