Murder of Scott Amedure

Scott Bernard Amedure was born on January 26, 1963, the youngest of six children to Frank Amedure and Patricia Graves. He left high school at seventeen to join the Army, serving three years before returning to Michigan. Amedure had a history of substance abuse, for which he entered rehabilitation programs twice, and he experienced difficulties in relationships, including past instances of domestic violence. He worked as a bartender at Club Flamingo, a gay club in Pontiac, Michigan. A neighbor described him as "a talk-show junkie."

On March 6, 1995, Amedure appeared on an episode of The Jenny Jones Show titled "Revealing Same Sex Secret Crush," in which he disclosed that he had a secret crush on Jonathan Schmitz, a man who lived near him in Lake Orion, Michigan. Schmitz had not been told in advance who his secret admirer would be, and he later stated he believed producers implied the admirer was a woman, a claim the show's producers disputed. During the taping, Amedure was encouraged by host Jenny Jones to describe his fantasies about Schmitz before Schmitz was brought onstage and the revelation was made. Schmitz laughed and stated he was "definitely heterosexual" in response.

According to testimony given at the later murder trial, Amedure and Schmitz went out drinking together the night after the taping, during which an alleged sexual encounter occurred. Three days after the taping, on the morning of March 9, 1995, Amedure left a sexually suggestive note at Schmitz's residence. After finding the note, Schmitz withdrew money from a bank, purchased a 12-gauge shotgun, and went to Amedure's mobile home, asking Amedure if he had left the note. Court documents indicate Amedure responded with a smile. Schmitz returned to his car for the gun, went back to the trailer, and shot Amedure twice in the chest, killing him. Schmitz then left the residence, called 911, and confessed to the killing. He was arrested shortly afterward.

Schmitz was charged with first-degree murder. His defense argued that he had been diagnosed with manic depression (bipolar disorder) and Graves' disease, and asserted a "gay panic defense," claiming mental illness and humiliation over the on-air revelation drove him to commit the killing. In 1996, a jury found Schmitz guilty of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 25–50 years in prison. This conviction was later overturned on appeal, but upon retrial Schmitz was again found guilty of second-degree murder, and his sentence was reinstated. He was released from prison on parole on August 22, 2017.

Separately, in 1995, Amedure's family filed a wrongful death/negligence lawsuit against The Jenny Jones Show, Telepictures, and Warner Bros., represented by attorney Geoffrey Fieger. The lawsuit alleged that producers had "ambushed" Schmitz with the same-sex crush revelation and should have foreseen the resulting violence. In May 1999, a jury awarded the Amedure family $29,332,686. This judgment was later overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision, which held that the show's producers were not liable because Schmitz's actions were "unforeseeable." The Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal. The unaired episode footage was later shown to jurors during the civil trial.