Murder of Scott Amedure

In 2021, the controversy was covered in season 6 of the series How It Really Happened on the US TV network HLN in an episode titled "The Jenny Jones Show: Fatal Attraction".

At trial, defense attorneys argued that Schmitz, who had been diagnosed with manic depression and Graves' disease, was caused to commit homicide by mental illness and humiliation, by way of the "gay panic defense". Schmitz was found guilty of second-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to 25–50 years in prison, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. Upon retrial, he was found guilty of the same charge once again and his sentence was reinstated. Schmitz was released from prison on August 22, 2017, after being granted parole.

In 1999, the Amedure family, retaining Geoffrey Fieger as lawyer, sued The Jenny Jones Show, Telepictures, and Warner Bros. for the ambush tactics and, as the Amedure family considered it, their negligent actions that resulted in Amedure's death. In May, the jury awarded the Amedures $29,332,686.

On March 6, 1995, Amedure videotaped an episode of The Jenny Jones Show, in which he admitted to being a secret admirer of Jonathan Schmitz, who lived near him in Lake Orion, Michigan. Until the taping, Schmitz did not know who would be revealed as his secret admirer. Schmitz stated that he participated in the show due to curiosity, and he claimed later that the producers implied that his admirer was a woman, although the producers of the show claim that they did tell Schmitz that the admirer could be male or female.

Scott Bernard Amedure (January 26, 1963 – March 9, 1995) was an American murder victim. During a taping of The Jenny Jones Show, a television talk show, Amedure revealed that he was attracted to an acquaintance, Jonathan Schmitz (born (1970-07-18)July 18, 1970). Three days later, Schmitz confronted Amedure and shot him twice in the chest. He confessed to the killing and was found guilty of second-degree murder. The Amedure family successfully sued The Jenny Jones Show for wrongful death, but the judgment was subsequently overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals. The episode was never broadcast, although segments of it were played for television news programs.

Amedure was born in 1963 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Lake Orion, Michigan. He served in the army, where he came out as gay.