The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the criminal case of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, the "Tiger King" who is serving a 21-year prison sentence for a murder-for-hire plot.

On Monday, the justices declined the petition to review the case, meaning Maldonado-Passage’s conviction will stand. The decision marks the latest development in the 63-year-old’s ongoing legal efforts to overturn his conviction tied to a murder-for-hire plot against animal welfare activist Carole Baskin.

Baskin and Maldonado-Passage’s rivalry gained public attention in 2020 after the airing of the Netflix documentary "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness." The series highlighted their feud, as Baskin accused Maldonado-Passage of abusing and exploiting wild animals.

In April 2019, an Oklahoma jury found Maldonado-Passage guilty on two counts of hiring people to kill Baskin. Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020.

In addition to the conviction for the murder plot, jurors also found the former zookeeper guilty of multiple wildlife-related offenses, including killing five tiger cubs, selling tiger cubs in violation of federal law and falsifying wildlife records.

The "Tiger King" claimed in his appeal to the Supreme Court that the government’s case on the murder-for-hire counts rested almost entirely on three cooperating witnesses — Allen Glover, James Garretson and Jeff and Lauren Lowe — whose testimony supplied virtually all evidence of criminal intent and interstate agreement. He further argued that no independent evidence demonstrated a completed murder-for-hire plot or actual interstate travel to carry out a killing.

Maldonado-Passage alleged that the tigers he was accused of killing were "aged" and "diseased," asserting that prosecutors mischaracterized what he described as "humane euthanasia" as criminal conduct.

Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent posing as a hitman to kill Baskin, according to The Associated Press. During a recorded meeting in December 2017, authorities say he told the agent, "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off."

Defense attorneys argued that Maldonado-Passage wasn’t serious about killing Baskin.

In 2022, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court had improperly treated the two murder-for-hire counts as separate offenses during sentencing.

The appellate court determined that the counts should have been grouped together, warranting a reduced sentence. A federal judge subsequently resentenced Maldonado-Passage to 21 years in prison.

During the proceedings, Maldonado-Passage said to the judge, "Please don't make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free."

At the time, he had begun treatment for early-stage cancer. His attorneys told the court that he was particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to his diagnosis of stage-one prostate cancer and an additional condition that compromised his immune system.

Amy Hanna, an attorney for Maldonado-Passage, told the court that her client was not receiving proper medical care inside the federal prison system, arguing that a lengthy prison sentence is a "death sentence for Joe that he doesn't deserve," according to The Associated Press.

Baskin, who attended the proceedings with her husband, told the judge that Maldonado-Passage "continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will" toward her. She claimed that, even though the former zookeeper is serving a prison sentence, she continued to receive "vile, abusive and threatening communications."

The animal welfare activist also argued that the notoriety of the "Tiger King" due to the Netflix series made her more concerned about the potential threat he posed to her safety.

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