The Gay Panic Defense: Murder of Scott Amedure

On the 6th of March, 1995, 32-year-old Scott Bernard Amedure was selected to appear on The Jenny Jones Show. He was a fan of the show - in fact, one of his neighbors described him as being “a talk-show junkie.” The episode was titled “Revealing Same Sex Secret Crush” - a recent trend that had been appearing on several other talk shows at the time. The premise was that six guests would be invited to publicly meet their secret admirer, and after the admirer confessed to their feelings, both people would be interviewed by Jenny Jones.

Before the show, all of the guests had to undergo pre-screening. In these interviews, the producers of the show told them that it was possible for their “secret admirer” to be male or female - but even though the episode was going to be titled “Revealing Same Sex Secret Crush”, the producers failed to inform any of the guests that all of the secret admirers would be the same sex as them. 

As a gay man, Scott was going to be one of the six secret admirers. He had always had a hard time with relationships, and had been involved in domestic violence incidents in the past. However, he was highly involved with the LGBT community, even working at a gay bar in Pontiac, Michigan where he lived.

At the beginning of the episode, Jenny Jones explained the premise to the audience. Each of the secret admirers were invited out on the stage, and Jenny interviewed them about their feelings, asking how they had met their crush, and probing for details about their romantic and sexual fantasies. To prevent each of the “crushes” from overhearing, they were asked to sit backstage with soundproof headphones on. Finally, once the interviews with the admirers were over, Jenny asked the “crush” to come onstage. In front of the live audience, the admirers admitted their feelings for their crushes - and then they were immediately interviewed and asked whether they reciprocated the feelings.

Scott was the third secret admirer to reveal his secret crush, telling the audience that he was infatuated with a man named Jonathan Schmitz, who lived in the same area as him. When Jonathan came onstage and realized that Scott was his secret admirer, he gave Scott an “awkward hug” and said that he was flattered by the attention, but told Scott, Jenny, and the audience that he was “definitely heterosexual.”

The night after “Revealing Same Sex Crush” was taped, Scott and Jonathan decided to go out to a bar for a drink together. According to one of Scott’s friends, despite Jonathan’s insistence that he was heterosexual, the two men allegedly had a sexual encounter at some point that night before going their separate ways. Two days later, Scott visited Jonathan’s house, and left behind a “suggestive” handwritten note addressed to him.

After reading the note, Jonathan didn’t hesitate. He went to the bank and took out some cash, which he used to buy a gun. He drove to the mobile home where Scott lived, and left the gun in his car while he went to knock on the door. Scott opened the door, and Jonathan asked him, “Were you the one who left the note?” Scott responded by smiling. Leaving Scott standing in the doorway, Jonathan walked back to his car and picked up the gun, shot Scott in the chest, and then shot him a second time for good measure. Scott collapsed and died almost instantly.

Jonathan drove to a gas station nearby, called the police, and told the operator that he had just committed a murder.

Before Jonathan went to trial, another court case took place: The Jenny Jones Show faced a negligence lawsuit that had been filed by Scott’s loved ones. They argued that the show had irresponsibly put Scott - and the other “crushes” who appeared on the episode - in a position where they felt ambushed by their admirers, and that the show’s producers should have considered the possibility of violence. 

Jonathan Schmitz’s own family members also blamed his appearance on The Jenny Jones Show for Scott’s murder. “The talk shows,” Jonathan’s father said, “They’re absolutely rotten. Had [Jenny Jones] not done this, this would never have happened.”  Most of the other popular talk shows attempted to avoid giving an official comment on the case, but eventually, several of them caved. Jerry Springer disagreed that The Jenny Jones Show could be found responsible for Scott’s death, saying, “to suggest we have reached a point in our society where people don’t take responsibility for their own actions…that this man could justify a murder because of a talk show…is stupid on its face.”

Another talk show host, Phil Donahue, said that blaming The Jenny Jones Show for the murder “[came] very close to saying that producers have a responsibility to administer a sanity test for all prospective guests.”

The case also resulted in a debate about how shock value was used in talk shows - especially when an episode revolved around revealing private information to somebody in an “ambush.” Several talk show hosts claimed that they changed their protocols immediately after hearing about the incident, and the backlash that surrounded the Jenny Jones Show after Scott’s murder discouraged other talk show hosts from putting their guests in similar situations. Many talk shows began to consider carrying out psychological profiling, and more in-depth screening, when deciding what guests to invite on the show.

Four years after filing the lawsuit, Scott’s family were awarded a settlement of almost $30,000,000. Later, the Jenny Jones Show appealed the verdict, and in October 2002, the judgement was overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals. 

Despite the jury previously being 8-1 in favor of Scott’s family, the court now found that Jonathan’s response to Scott’s crush had been “unforeseeable”, claiming that the Jenny Jones producers “had no duty to anticipate and prevent the act of murder committed by [Jonathan] Schmitz three days after leaving the studio, and hundreds of miles away.” Jenny Jones herself, who had previously testified at the trial, described herself as being “elated” that the verdict was reversed. “Scott Amedure’s murder was a horrible tragedy,” she said, “But I have always believed that it was fundamentally wrong - and unfair - to blame the show.”

At Jonathan’s 1996 trial, the defense relied on two factors that they believed had contributed to Scott’s murder: Jonathan had Graves’ disease and bipolar disorder, and the fact that Scott Amedure had been gay. They leaned on a legal term called “gay panic” - a defense that can be used when a heterosexual perpetrator claims that they killed an LGBT victim in a state of panic because of “unwanted sexual advances.” As well as alleging that Jonathan had been thrown into a state of panic by Scott’s advances, his attorneys told the jury about how Jonathan had had a difficult childhood, including a traumatizing experience where he was publicly humiliated, and that he had suffered from suicidal tendencies as an adult.

Regardless of Jonathan’s medical history - and the use of the gay panic defense - the jury still found him guilty of Scott’s murder. However, they believed that Scott’s mental state warranted a less severe charge, so the first-degree murder charges were reduced to second-degree murder. When one of the jurors was asked about the trial’s verdict, they replied, “We saw the show as a catalyst in a young man’s life, who had a lot of problems. It sent his life back into an emotional tailspin.”

The judge handed him a sentence of 25-50 years, which he appealed. The appeal was granted, and the conviction was overturned - but at his retrial, Jonathan was found guilty a second time, and received the same sentence.

In 2017, Jonathan was released on parole after serving 21 years of his sentence. Although he was never officially charged with committing a hate crime, Scott’s murder is often described as one. The case led to increased public awareness of how the gay panic defense could be used in court, with many people saying that the murder was blamed on The Jenny Jones Show, when it should have been viewed as a consequence of homophobia. Jenny Jones herself stated that the crime “had more to do with homophobia than anything else”, saying that “it was tragic that Jonathan Schmitz would rather have been labeled a murderer than a homosexual.”

The case became one of the most notorious examples of the gay panic defense providing a lighter sentence to a murderer, and it was cited as an example of why the defense should be banned across the United States of America. 

The gay panic defense has since been banned in court in 18 American states… but in Michigan, where Scott Amedure was murdered, it is still a valid defense in court.