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Supreme Court declines to hear 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic's challenge after murder-for-hire conviction
By Anders Hagstrom
Published March 30, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, commonly known as Joe Exotic, a pop culture icon from Netflix's "Tiger King" documentary on Monday. The case stems from his conviction for a murder-for-hire plot.
Maldonado-Passage is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence for the conviction, which he is seeking to have overturned. He has also repeatedly called on President Donald Trump to pardon him, claiming there were issues with his trial.
Maldonado-Passage lost his last appeal before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July.
"I lost my appeal for a new trial today. The United States Government wants me to die in prison even though they know their witnesses were lying under Oath," he wrote in a post on X at the time. "In fact, their witnesses all admitted to perjury on world television on season 2 of Tiger King."
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Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic. (Netflix US/AFP via Getty Images)
He followed up the statement with a request for a pardon from Trump.
"Make this right and allow me to go home," he wrote. "8 years of my life I have lost."
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Maldonado-Passage was convicted in 2019 of hiring two men to kill Carole Baskin, another prominent character in the viral documentary who had criticized his big cat zoo for years.
He sought a retrial in 2023, claiming new evidence had come forward and that witnesses had recanted their testimonies. That effort failed at the district level when U.S. District Judge Scott Palk noted that Maldonado-Passage's own words had served as "the most credible and damning evidence" against him.
Feb 28, 2013; Wynnewood, OK, USA; "Joe Exotic" talks about a lawsuit at GW Exotic Animal Park. (Steve Sisney/The Oklahoman via the USA TODAY Network)
Maldonado-Passage last made national headlines in April last year, when announced he had married one of his fellow inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The 62-year-old shared details of his romance with Jorge Marquez Flores in an interview with Fox News Digital from prison in 2024.
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Joe Exotic announced his marriage to Jorge. (X: Joe Exotic)
"From the very day we met, we've spent every minute of every day together," he said. "And it just clicked so fast and so sincere, and it's amazing.
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"I wished I would have met Jorge months ago or a couple of years ago, but God had a plan, I guess."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-declines-hear-tiger-king-joe-exotic-challenge-murder-hire-conviction