RESENTENCING FOR ‘TIGER KING’ JOE EXOTIC CUTS JUST ONE YEAR
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge resentenced “Tiger King” Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison on Friday, reducing his punishment by just a year despite pleas from the former zookeeper for leniency as he begins treatment for early stage cancer.
“Please don’t make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free,” he tearfully told a federal judge who resentenced him on a murderfor-hire charge.
Joe Exotic — whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — was convicted in a case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both were featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Maldonado-Passage, 58, still had his trademark mullet hairstyle, but the bleach-blond had faded to brown and gray.
Baskin and her husband, Howard Baskin, also attended the proceedings, and she said she was fearful that Maldonado-Passage could threaten her.
“He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me,” she told the judge.
Baskin told the judge she believes Maldonado-Passage poses an even more serious threat to her now that he has a larger group of supporters because of the popularity of the Netflix series.
Maldonado-Passage’s attorneys told the judge their client is suffering from stage 1 prostate cancer, along with a disease that compromises his immune system, making him particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Stage 1 prostate cancer means it has been detected early and hasn’t spread.
His attorney Amy Hanna told the judge he’s not receiving the proper medical care inside the federal prison system and that a lengthy prison sentence is a “death sentence for Joe that he doesn’t deserve.”
Friday’s court proceedings came about after a federal appeals court ruled last year that the prison term he’s serving on a murder-for-hire conviction should be shortened.
Supporters packed the courtroom, some wearing animal-print masks and shirts that read “Free Joe Exotic.” His attorneys said they would appeal the resentencing and petition for a new trial.
The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill Baskin. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court should have treated them as one conviction at sentencing because they both involved the same goal of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida and had criticized MaldonadoPassage’s treatment of animals.
Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, also was convicted of killing five tigers,
selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.