The story of the "gay panic defense" and how it altered the verdict of a man charged with murder.
The Murder of Scott Amedure
On March 6th, 1995, a young man named Scott Amedure appeared on the taping of the Jenny Jones Show, in which he admitted to an acquaintance named Johnathan Schmitz that he had been his secret admirer. Schmitz claimed he agreed to come on the show because he was curious to find out who his secret admirer was since the producers implied that his admirer was female. On the show, Amedure was encouraged by Jones to share his fantasies about Schmitz, after which Schmitz was brought onstage. An awkward conversation between the two followed as Schmitz said, "I am definitely heterosexual." Amedure and Schmitz went out drinking together the night after the taping. According to the testimony at the trial, 3 days after the taping, Amedure allegedly left a "suggestive" note at Schmitz's house. In response to reading the message, Schmitz withdrew money from a bank, purchased a shotgun, and then went to Amedure's home to confront him. After being asked if he had written the note, Amedure smiled at Schmitz. This reaction prompted Schmitz to get his gun and shoot Amedure twice in the chest, killing him. After killing Amedure, Schmitz left the residence, telephoned 9-1-1, and confessed to the killing stating he did it "because he played a very fucking bad thing on me. He took me on Jenny Jones."
The Trial of Jonathan Schmitz
The trial of Jonathan Schmitz began in 1996. The defense was led by James Burdick, who wished to show the jury that his client was only partly at fault for the death of Amedure. Instead, Burdick wanted to place blame on the show for their carelessness of their client's previous issues. Attorneys argued that Schmitz, who had been diagnosed with manic depression and Graves' disease, was caused to commit the homicide by the mental illness and humiliation associated with the show and by way of the "gay panic defense," which is a legal strategy in which a defendant claims to have acted in a state of violent, temporary insanity, committing a crime, due to unwanted same-sex sexual advances. After hearing the argument, the jury found Schmitz guilty of a lesser second-degree murder charge and sentenced him to 25–50 years in prison.
