“Tiger King” Joe Exotic has been convicted twice for incitement to murder – wrongly, as a court has now found.
Oklahoma – Tiger King star Joe Exotic’s 22-year sentence was overturned on Wednesday (July 14, 2021) by a federal appeals court in Oklahoma, USA. The 10th District Court of Appeals found that the court erred in failing to combine the two incitement to murder convictions of Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage.
The conviction of Maldonado-Passage was overturned and reconfirmed at the same time, so that he will be convicted again at a later date, according to the court record of the US Court of Appeals for the 10th district. Maldonado-Passage was convicted in 2019 of inciting the murder of his rival Carole Baskin and of cruelty to animals.
“Tiger King” Joe Exotic: According to the court, both counts have a common criminal target
Since his convictions for inciting murder twice were not treated as an attempted murder by the judge, the guidelines for his prison sentence had increased from 210 to 262 months to 362 to 327 months, which the appellate court believed should not have happened.
“Maldonado-Passage had hired two different hit men on two different occasions, even though its ‘end, aim or purpose’ was the same,” the appeals court said. Thus, according to the court, the acts or transactions of the two charges shared a common criminal goal – Baskin’s assassination. “The district court was wrong by not combining the two counts for the contract killings,” ruled the court of appeal.
“Tiger King” on Netflix: Documentary series shows the case
The fall of Maldonado-Passage aka Joe Exotic became known through the Netflix documentary series “Tiger-King – Murder, Mayhem, Madness”. The documentary accompanies Maldonado-Passage for several years as he ran his private zoo with big cats. The Netflix series shows the feud with Carole Baskin, the chairman of the non-profit organization Big Cat Rescue, which accused Joe Exotic of animal cruelty and mobilized its supporters against him, which is why Joe Exotic put two hit men on Baskin.
The seven-part reality series was nominated for six Emmys, including best documentary series. A second season of “Tiger King” has not yet been officially announced by Netflix.
“Tiger King” series on Amazon with Nicolas Cage canceled
When the hype about the Netflix documentary series “Tiger King” broke out in spring 2020, Amazon quickly announced its own series on the bizarre story. The streaming service was even able to win Oscar winner Nicolas Cage for the project.
In the meantime, however, Amazon has apparently lost interest in the “Tiger King” series. In an interview with the entertainment service “Variety”, Cage blamed the long lead time for the project. “I’ve read two excellent scripts,” said the actor. “But I think Amazon felt in the end that the fabric was a thing of the past because it took so long to make it.” The streaming service was initially electrified by the hype surrounding the documentary at competitor Netflix. The enthusiasm had flattened a long time ago and the story no longer seemed relevant. (Sonja Thomaser)
