Please note the prisoners were on speaker phone, on a prison tablet, so that's why it is so loud/why the quality is the way it is. This was a live interview I conducted on tik tok, which i occasionally do on Tuesday's. @unforbiddentruthpodcast is my username.
Donald Ray Middlebrooks
In 1987, Donald Ray Middlebrooks, along with his then-teenage wife Tammy Middlebrooks and accomplice Robert Brewington, kidnapped and brutally tortured 14-year-old Kerrick Majors in East Nashville. The attack followed Majors accidentally breaking a vase at a makeshift flea market, and descended into a racially charged and horrific hate crime involving torture, mutilation, and ultimately stabbing — with racial slurs and extreme violence central to the ordeal. Middlebrooks was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, receiving a death sentence in 1989, later affirmed through retrial and appeal
After years of appeals, his execution was scheduled for December 2022 but was stayed amid concerns over the state’s lethal injection protocol; as of early 2025, a new execution date has been set, though it remains on hold pending federal litigation.
Steven J. Wiggins
Steven Wiggins, of Dickson, Tennessee, was convicted in August 2021 for the brutal killing of Sergeant Daniel Baker—shooting him multiple times during a traffic investigation, then dragging his body into the patrol car, impersonating him, and setting the vehicle ablaze with the body inside.
The scope of his convictions included premeditated first-degree murder, felony murder, theft, impersonation, arson, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. In April 2022, he accepted a federal plea agreement on carjacking and firearms charges which resulted in a life sentence — prompting withdrawal of the federal death penalty notice, though the state-level death sentence remains active.
He is currently on death row, and his legal team filed a motion for a new trial citing multiple errors in the original state proceedings.
Jonathan Wesley Stephenson
Jonathan Wesley Stephenson was convicted in 1990 in Cocke County for the premeditated, contract killing of his wife — alongside a related conspiracy conviction for hiring an accomplice. Initially sentenced to death plus 25 years, his case went through a complex appellate process. Due to sentencing irregularities, a new sentencing hearing followed, resulting in a life-without-parole term plus 60 years for conspiracy. However, that sentence was later vacated and resentenced to death again, which was affirmed by Tennessee’s Supreme Court in 2006.
He continued seeking relief — most recently filing a habeas corpus petition, which was dismissed in 2024 by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, affirming the legality of his death-plus-60‑year sentence.
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