Tiger King fame Joe Exotic gets re-sentenced to 21 years in prison

A federal judge re-sentenced Netflix's 'Tiger King' fame Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison on Friday, reducing his imprisonment by one year. According to Variety, the revised sentencing comes after Exotic pleaded with the judge for leniency as he undergoes prostate cancer treatment. Joseph Maldonado-Passage (Joe Exotic), a former zookeeper, was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder-for-hire for the plot to kill animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both were featured as archenemies in the Netflix docuseries 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness'. Also Read | Terrorists kill cop in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag The re-sentencing came after a federal appeals court last year ruled that the Exotic's sentence for the murder-for-hire conviction should be reduced. According to the Hollywood Reporter reported that Maldonado-Passage's lawyers told the judge their client is suffering from stage-one prostate cancer and has a disease that compromises his immune system, putting him at high risk of contracting Covid-19. Stage-one prostate cancer means the illness has been detected early and has not spread. Maldonado-Passage earlier stated that he intended to wait until after his resentencing to get treatment. He will require up to eight weeks of radiation treatment, according to federal officials, and will be unable to travel during this time. His lawyer, Amy Hanna, told the judge that he is not receiving adequate medical care in federal prison and that a prolonged prison sentence would be a "death sentence for Joe that he doesn't deserve." Also Read | Beating Retreat 2022: Show involving 1,000 drones was sight to behold Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in jail in January 2020 after being convicted of attempting to hire two different people to kill Baskin, who runs a big cat rescue sanctuary in Florida and has been vocal about Exotic's animal abuse. Exotic allegedly offered an undercover FBI agent $10,000 to assassinate Baskin, according to prosecutors. "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off," Exotic instructed the agent in a recorded meeting from December 2017. Exotic's lawyers maintained that he wasn't serious. Baskin, who was present with her husband, said she was still concerned that Exotic may threaten her. She informed the judge, "He continues to harbour intense feelings of ill will toward me," adding that 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. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Maldonado-Passage was also convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs, and falsifying wildlife records. -PTC News