Ailing "Tiger King" Joe Exotic will be resentenced on Jan. 28 and is likely to receive less time for his crimes.
U.S. District Judge Scott Palk scheduled the resentencing for 10 a.m. and approved the defendant's request to be transported to Oklahoma City for the hearing.
Attorneys for Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, said last month the former Oklahoma zookeeper was postponing his cancer treatment until after his resentencing. In November, Maldonado-Passage announced that he has prostate cancer and was transferred to a federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina from a federal medical center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Maldonado-Passage filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver for his two murder-for-hire convictions involving animal rights activist Carol Baskins, saying his convictions should be overturned because the court permitted Baskins to attend his trial despite the fact she was a government witness, according to CNN.
In July, the federal appeals court ruled that the trial court improperly treated Maldonado-Passage's convictions by separating them when deciding his prison term, saying he should receive a shorter sentence.
In January 2020, Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison. However, the appeals court said rather than the court setting his advisory sentencing range between just under 22 years and 27 years in prison, it should have been between 17 ½ years and just under 22 years in prison.
"I am optimistic that the decision today is but one of many more victories to come for Joe — and his eventual freedom," attorney Brandon Sample, Maldonado-Passage's appellate counsel, told CNN regarding the appeals court decision.
Maldonado-Passage was also sentenced for selling tiger cubs, killing five tigers, and falsifying wildlife records. He continues to maintain his innocence.
In a separate action, a couple who succeeded Maldonado-Passage in operating the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park and Tiger King Park agreed to surrender their rights to 97 animals of endangered or threatened species and 47 other animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act.
Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe, who are former friends of Maldonado-Passage, also agreed in a Dec. 23 consent decree filed in federal court in Muskogee, Oklahoma, to never again exhibit animals.
Federal agents seized the 97 endangered animals, including 68 big cats and a jaguar, from Tiger King Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, in two seizures last May and August. Federal officials accused the Lowes of harming and harassing the animals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
