Tiger King’s Joe Exotic Resentenced to 21 Years in Prison

UPDATE: Joe Exotic‘s prison time has been reduced by all of one year.

On Jan. 28, a judge resentenced the Tiger King star to 21 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot. He was previously given 22 years in prison before a federal appeals court ruled for him to be resentenced. 

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Joe Exotic of Tiger King fame will receive a new prison sentence for his role in a murder-for-hire plot, although his original conviction stands.

In 2020, the wildlife park owner and reality star, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for two separate murder-for-hire plot counts after he allegedly attempted to hire two hitmen to try to kill rival Carole Baskin, and for other wildlife violations. At a hearing on Wednesday, July 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver vacated his existing sentence.

The federal appeals ruled that a trial court must give Joe, 58, a new single sentence for both murder-for-hire plot counts, saying they should have originally been grouped together as one conviction, not two, according to court records obtained by E! News.

“I got the best news I’ve had in a long time,” Joe, 58, said in a phone call to one of his lawyers, as seen in a YouTube video provided by the Phillips & Hunt law firm.