HOUSTON (AP) — A 28-year-old East Texas man on death row for the slaying of his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter in what prosecutors said was an exorcism has lost a federal appeal.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday rejected arguments from Blaine Milam, who was condemned for the 2008 beating death of Amora Carson at Milam’s trailer in Rusk County. Milam’s attorneys contended he had deficient legal help at his trial and in earlier appeals and that the trial judge gave jurors a faulty instruction.
Evidence showed the child was bitten some 30 times and beaten with a hammer.
Milam’s trial in 2010 was moved about 140 miles south to Montgomery County, outside Houston, because of extensive publicity in Rusk County.
Milam doesn’t yet have an execution date.