Supreme Court turns down ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic’s murder appeal
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Supreme Court rejects appeals, keeps Joe Exotic’s 2019 conviction intact.
- Supreme Court keeps Exotic’s 21-year sentence intact; release listed as 2036.
- Tiger King Park closed in 2020; four tigers relocated to NC
The Supreme Court will not review “Tiger King” star Joe Exotic’s 2019 conviction in a failed, murder-for-hire plot to kill animal-rights activist Carole Baskin, the justices ruled Monday.
The former zookeeper, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is serving a 21-year sentence for hiring two men to kill Baskin, his Netflix series’ costar, and for falsifying wildlife records and violating the Endangered Species Act.
In the petition to the court, Maldonado-Passage’s attorney, Alexander Roots, argued that false testimonies “undermined the legitimacy of the verdict” and warranted a resentencing.
“These errors did not occur in a vacuum,” Roots wrote. “They affected a case of extraordinary public visibility, in which petitioner’s guilt or innocence turned entirely on witness credibility.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Roots had not returned a phone call from The News & Observer seeking comment.
Served time in Butner, NC, after cancer diagnosis
The Netflix star’s conviction brought him to the Triangle in 2021, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and transferred to a medical facility in Butner, North Carolina, about 15 miles north of Durham.
He was later moved to Federal Medical Center Fort Worth where he is scheduled for release in 2036, according to an inmate database.
A federal judge in 2021 reduced Maldonado-Passage’s sentence by a year in response to his cancer diagnosis, but the reality TV star has continued to push for clemency, even pleading for a pardon from President Donald Trump earlier this year as he waved sentences for other TV personalities.
“You are either rich and connected or your (sic) poor and being trafficked by the system,” Maldonado-Passage wrote on social media at the time.
4 big cats, including white tiger brought to Pittsboro
Maldonado-Passage’s Tiger King Park in Oklahoma shut down in 2020 amid allegations that its zookeepers were failing to care for its animals, and the animals at the park were relocated to sanctuaries across the country.
Four of the “Tiger King” big cats — including one white tiger — found their home at Carolina Tiger Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Chatham County.
The quartet — including Naveen, Samar and Shailah — joined the sanctuary in 2022. In February, Naveen, a “charismatic and social” tiger, was euthanized due to irreversible brain damage of an unknown cause, the sanctuary said.
The N&O was unable to speak with the communications officer at the sanctuary on Tuesday for this story.
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 2:05 PM.