News Scan

Texas Baby Killer Wins Stay

:  A Texas man scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the brutal 2008 murder of his girlfriend's baby daughter, won a last-minute stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Monday.  Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune

reports

that the court's majority ordered a lower court to review defendant Blaine Milam's claims that he is too mentally retarded to qualify for execution and that bite mark evidence introduced at trial may have been invalid.  Milam was found guilty of the December 2008 sexual assault and brutal murder of 13-month-old Amora Carson.  The medical examiner found 24 human bite marks on the baby's body, which were linked to Milam.  The science that supported that link is currently being challenged.  Milam also benefited from the Supreme Court's 2017 decision in

Moore v. Texas

, which found that the Texas standards for determining mental retardation were outdated.   Prosecutors argued that questions about the bite marks were settled at trial and that other significant evidence convinced the jury of Milam's guilt.  An August 17, Federal District Court

decision

to deny Milam relief on habeas corpus provides details about the crime and the defendant's claims. 

News Scan curated from Crime and Consequences Blog