The star of the Netflix hit, “Tiger King,” Joe Exotic received a shorter prison sentence this month.
In early January, The Blast reported that Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was being granted a resentencing request by a federal judge in Oklahoma.
In January 2020, Maldonado-Passage had been sentenced to 22 years behind bars for trying to hire two different men to kill Big Cat Rescue CEO and “Tiger King” nemesis Carole Baskin. In July 2021, an appeals court ruled that Exotic should face a shorter prison sentence than what he had originally received.
Three Judges Found That Joe Exotic Had Been Sentenced Incorrectly
According to AP News, three judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver found that the trial court treated his murder-for-hire convictions separately and granted Joe Exotic more time behind bars than he should have otherwise received.
The court agreed that Maldonado-Passage should have only been facing one murder conviction, which would have placed his sentence between 17 ½ years to 22 years, instead of 22 to 27 years.
Although Maldonado-Passage pled not guilty to the murder charges, he was also sentenced for the murder of five tigers, selling tiger cubs, and falsifying wildlife records.
Joe Exotic’s Sentence Shortened… But Not By Much
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Exotic’s sentence was reduced from 22 years to 21 years. Although many fans and supporters called for leniency in his resentencing, the judge only removed one year from his overall prison term.
In November, Maldonado-Passage announced that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he was delaying cancer treatment until after his resentencing. During his resentencing, he told a federal judge, “Please don’t make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free.”
Although his supporters donned tiger-printed masks and called for Joe Exotic to be freed, Carole Baskin and her husband, Howard, also attended the trial proceedings to request that Joe Exotic be kept behind bars.
“He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me,” Baskin said.
Attorneys for Joe Exotic say that they plan to appeal the resentencing and petition for a new trial.
Carole Baskin Addresses New ‘Joe vs. Carole’ Limited Series
Although Netflix’s “Tiger King” and “Tiger King 2” seem like things of the past, Peacock is reigniting their feud on screen. They have created a brand new limited series called “Joe vs. Carole.”
The show’s official synopsis says that the show will “center on Carole Baskin, a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe ‘Exotic’ Schreibvogel is breeding and using his big cats for profit. She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy. The results prove dangerous.”
Carole Baskin will be played by “Saturday Night Live” comedian Kate McKinnon. The role of Joe Exotic will be played by John Cameron Mitchell. Actor Kyle MacLachlan will be playing Carole’s current husband, Howard.
Although Baskin unsuccessfully tried to sue Netflix to prevent them from using her footage in the “Tiger King” sequel, Baskin said that she is actually looking forward to watching the new series!
“My husband and I look forward to seeing Kate McKinnon and Kyle McLaughlin’s portrayal of us, even though we expect it will be a parody based on the trailer,” Baskin said.
“Both are talented actors and I expect ‘Joe vs Carole’ will be a lot more entertaining than the situation was in real life,” she continued.
“As with Netflix’s Tiger King, Murder, Mayhem and Madness and Wondery’s Joe Exotic, Over My Dead Body and all of the other spinoffs, none of these programmes created for entertainment value really get at the main issues of big cat and cub abuse and the imminent extinction of big cats due to cub petting, like we do in Discovery+ Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight.”
“My fear is that in the next five years, while people are morbidly obsessed the plight of my former husband, Don Lewis, we will have reached the point of no return for the planet by failing to safeguard the world’s most iconic species,” she added.
“Joe vs. Carole” will be available to stream on Peacock starting on March 3, 2022.
