When Carole 99% killed her rich husband, wasn't her brother the deputy sheriff back then ? Since that was 20yrs ago, he might have been promoted to be sherriff or even federal, when they took down Joe Exotico. That would explain why they devoted very lil resources into investigating the disappearance of Carole's husband, and later on, devoted huge resources to entrap Joe.

Imagine you're her brother in the 90's. You'd easily have heard of the public rivalry between your sister Carole & this eccentric Tiger King. And it went on for many years. And finally, you hear of a possible killing. Instead of talking to Joe to dissuade him from doing anything stupid, or that the first hitman changed his story (confessed to not even being in Florida... so, no case at all), the FBI built as many unrelated cases against Joe. Sounded too over-the-top in their effort to entrap, and to hire as many witnesses (for example, saying either the witness is 'on Joe's team, or on FBI's team', lol) & to put Joe behind bars. The whole case sounded way too personal.

Anyway, Joe won't successfully appeal. Very little chance of that. Just that his mum clearly loves him dearly, for example, was willing to keep paying for him with her limited money. Joe didn't seem to have hurt / killed anyone in his life. And you know, they say, we're less likely to hurt/kill when we grow older (most volatile is around 20s-30s of age). Joe didn't seem to have that kind of history. So a good talk to him woulda sufficed. Instead the FBI (most likely supported by the local enforcement) took him down as if he was a child trafficker.

We know enforcements often over-protect one another like brothers. So why not also extend that kinda protection to their families & friends? Unfortunately, the doco didn't say where did Carole's brother go? Esp after that suspicious re-telling, whereby she went at 3am to get cat food, and she bumped into him out of the blue, and a day later, her husband disappeared. Money can buy you on the good side of the law, and so can family relation. Carole had both, & she knows how to manipulate people.

So... I see parallels between this & 'Making a Murderer' (first season was already more solid, while Tiger King is probably only 1/4 as well-researched)... Anyway, crazy system of justice!