A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that “Tiger King” Joe Exotic should get a shorter prison sentence for his role in a murder-for-hire plot against Carol Baskins and violating federal wildlife laws.
Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in federal prison.
A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver found that the trial court wrongly treated those two convictions.
According to the ruling, the court should have calculated his advisory sentencing range to be between 17 1/2 years and just under 22 years in prison, rather than between just under 22 years and 27 years in prison. The court ordered the trial court to re-sentence Joe Exotic.
Joe Exotic has revealed he has prostate cancer. His attorneys argued that he was “railroaded and betrayed” by others and said “he will likely die in prison” because of health concerns. He is serving his sentence at a medical prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
A Denver federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that “Tiger King” Joe Exotic should get a shorter prison sentence for his role in a murder-for-hire plot and violating wildlife laws. He was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison in January 2020.https://t.co/ZaPjPPVlOC
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 14, 2021