'Tiger King' Uncaged Sooner? Joe Exotic Set For Resentencing Of Prison Sentence

A federal judge in Oklahoma on Monday set a resentencing date for Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as “Tiger King” or “Joe Exotic,” after an appeals court ruled he should get a shorter sentence.

U.S. District Judge Scott Palk set the resentencing for 10 a.m. on Jan. 28. Palk is allowing Maldonado-Passage’s request to be transported to Oklahoma to have the hearing, according to court records.

In January 2020, Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver ruled in July that the trial court wrongly treated Maldonado-Passage’s two murder-for-hire convictions, by not calculating them together to determine his prison term. This should have been done because the two convictions shared the same goal.

The appeals court determined that his sentencing should have been calculated at 17 and a half years to 22 years, and not the 22 years to 27 years that he was given.

Maldonado-Passage was convicted for hiring people two different times to kill Carole Baskin — a tiger activist who had a feud with Maldonado-Passage — and also for killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.

A “consent decree” was also declared by the Justice Department on Monday that will ban any person from the Tiger King show from exhibiting animals. This will include Jeff Lowe and his wife, Lauren Lowe, who took over the Tiger King Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, when Maldonado-Passage went to prison.

Maldonado-Passage has maintained his innocence. The Netflix series "Tiger King 2" went into greater depth about how Maldonado-Passage may indeed be innocent.

Maldonado-Passage had sought a pardon from then-President Donald Trump.

In November, Maldonado-Passage also announced that he has prostate cancer. In a letter, he asked the world to be my voice to be released. They have the proof I did not do this and there is no reason for the U.S. attorney to drag this out so I can go home and get treatment on my own or enjoy what life I have left with my loved ones.”