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Joe Exotic resentenced to 21 years in prison for murder for hire plot against Carole Baskin

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member

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 murder-for-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-blonde 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 said even with Maldonado-Passage in prison, she has continued to receive "vile, abusive and threatening communications" over the last two years. She 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-one prostate cancer, along with a disease that compromises his immune system, making him particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

Stage-one prostate cancer means it has been detected early and hasn't spread. Maldonado-Passage previously said that he planned to delay treatment until after his resentencing. Federal officials have said Maldonado-Passage will need up to eight weeks of radiation treatments and would be unable to travel during the treatments.


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."

Prosecutors also told the judge Friday that Maldonado-Passage received a disciplinary write-up in September for being possession of a contraband cellphone and unauthorized headphones that was not included in his pre-sentencing report. Palk added that Maldonado-Passage had four previous disciplinary write-ups, although he described those as "relatively minor and not violent."

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 defense submitted a series of attachments that showed excessive government involvement in the creation of the offense for which he's been convicted," attorney Molly Parmer told reporters after the hearing.

"We are going to continue our post-conviction litigation, but we did preview for the court the evidence we have through our post-conviction investigation."

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 Maldonado-Passage's treatment of animals.

Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin during a recorded December 2017 meeting. In the recording, he told the agent, "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off." Maldonado-Passage's attorneys have said their client — who once operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City — wasn't being serious.

Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, also was convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Big Cats GIF by NETFLIX


Big Cats Laugh GIF by NETFLIX


TBH tiger king was one of the maddest things to come from the pandemic. If I just read the headlines of this without knowing the back story. It would be err is this Florida ? But seeing the series. Yea it’s just fucking insane. They need to make a film of all of it.
 
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anthony2690

Banned
Big Cats GIF by NETFLIX


Big Cats Laugh GIF by NETFLIX


TBH tiger king was one of the maddest things to come from the pandemic. If I just read the headlines of this without knowing the back story. It would be err is this Florida ? But seeing the series. Yea it’s just fucking insane. They need to make a film of all of it.
Any chanc of a TLDR for someone who doesn't want to watch the tiger king?
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
It's a fucking must watch tbh, there is no TLDR as it's so full of WTFs
This, but TLDR
Tigers, Meth, suicide, possible murder of ex husband by tigers from carol. Some kind of zoo/sex cult. Plot twist plot twist, ok I’ve seen it all…. Plot twist. Fucking hell…country and music video, FBI ? What the fuck the hell is happening ?!? This can’t be real. You couldn’t write this?
 
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Artoris

Gold Member
This, but TLDR
Tigers, Meth, suicide, possible murder of ex husband by tigers from carol. Some kind of zoo/sex cult. Plot twist plot twist, ok I’ve seen it all…. Plot twist. Fucking hell…country and music video, FBI ? What the fuck the hell is happening ?!? This can’t be real. You couldn’t write this?
Welcome to the modern world
 

Ballthyrm

Member
This, but TLDR
Tigers, Meth, suicide, possible murder of ex husband by tigers from carol. Some kind of zoo/sex cult. Plot twist plot twist, ok I’ve seen it all…. Plot twist. Fucking hell…country and music video, FBI ? What the fuck the hell is happening ?!? This can’t be real. You couldn’t write this?

Yeah , the plot lost an arm at some point.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
That joe exotic music video where theres a carol lookalike feeding her husband to the tigers is hilarious.
His whole unfounded hatred of her. Then her her being her and simultaneously pissing people off yet strangely endearing herself. Going from she is just eccentric to maybe joe is right ?!?
 
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jufonuk

not tag worthy
Yeah , the plot lost an arm at some point.
Yes the person who out of a few was just there to do their job, not get sucked into the mad bullshit going on and actually cared about the tigers lost an arm.
 
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This, but TLDR
Tigers, Meth, suicide, possible murder of ex husband by tigers from carol. Some kind of zoo/sex cult. Plot twist plot twist, ok I’ve seen it all…. Plot twist. Fucking hell…country and music video, FBI ? What the fuck the hell is happening ?!? This can’t be real. You couldn’t write this?
Sounds like when Andy Samberg jams together 20 random scenarios in a song

Wow
 
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ManaByte

Gold Member
This, but TLDR
Tigers, Meth, suicide, possible murder of ex husband by tigers from carol. Some kind of zoo/sex cult. Plot twist plot twist, ok I’ve seen it all…. Plot twist. Fucking hell…country and music video, FBI ? What the fuck the hell is happening ?!? This can’t be real. You couldn’t write this?
Then suddenly a porn star shows up hanging out with Tiger King.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
For us Europeans it explains how Trump got elected, the sheer amount of fucking stupid on display is staggering it's the best car crash TV I've ever watched, loved every minute of it
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
They all deserve each other, in my opinion. I'm just sad about how the animals suffer because of those asholes' egos. Private zoos should be illegal.
Yeah the one clear take away from the show is - don't go to private zoos.
 
Funny most Europeans I know think Trump was elected because the other option, Hilary Clinton should have been in jail. But let’s not derail the thread or topic.
Most Europeans have some unwarranted high horse they sit on when talking about America. Given the fact how dominated nearly every part of life is by American businesses and people. Not those from Europe.

I guess that's the reason. So one can at least shit on the average American, that surly is worse than the average European.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I feel like a very important piece of American culture is being lost with the continued incarceration of Joe Exotic and he needs to be freed immediately.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
In the end I want to see Tiger King free we'll see how it plays out 21 years you can still move on after that.
 

daveonezero

Banned
this thing is dirty.

The feds involvement and someones feelings being hurt as a case to sending a man to rot (even if he is an asshole) in jail is pretty wrong.
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
She allegedly fed her missing husband to her tigers and inherited his fortune. Her brother was a deputy sheriff assigned in the investigation. It’s a lurid story.

Immensely fascinating. I knew this show was nuts, but I didn't know or understand to what extent?
I think when I have more free time for Just Work, GAF and Games; I'll take a little trip down the rabbit hole.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
You couldn't script it tbh, the amount of fucking How!? Why!?! You serious!? In every episode made for compelling viewing and I gotta admit even though the show painted a particular light on certain people, you can't help but like Joe, he's the ultimate red neck and you can justify a lot of his actions by the fact that he's a fucking redneck and well rednecks are gonna redneck..

The one character that wound me up was Carole Fucking Baskins husband... He needed a right slap, there was no redeeming quality about him at all and between him and his missus something definitely went on with the ex and let's face it, it can't be hard to hide a body in Florida what with the climate, swamps and owning fucking man eating tigers...
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
This resentencing seems like an intentional slap in the face to Joe Exotic. The appeals court ruled that he should be given a lighter sentence and that his three counts of attempted murder-for-hire should've been one count.

So the judge resentences him to 21 years from 22 years, on the grounds that he had contraband headphones and a cell phone, which presumably all the inmates have.
 

Winter John

Member
They should've thrown that asshole and his buddies into one of them tiger cages. I don't know how anyone can have any sympathy for that man after seeing those tigers penned up and murdered
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
They should've thrown that asshole and his buddies into one of them tiger cages. I don't know how anyone can have any sympathy for that man after seeing those tigers penned up and murdered
He’s definitely a huge fuckup and shouldn’t be allowed to care for animals. There are better ways to utilize him for the public good than locking him up for the rest of his life, though. Sentence him to long-term community service to raise money for some legitimate wildlife conservation funds, for example.
 
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