The Gay Panic Defense

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Discretion, is it vis tim immediate
murders. On the sixth of March nineteen

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ninety five, thirty two year old
Scott Bernard Ammendur was selected to appear on

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the Jenny Jones Show. He was
a fan of the show. In fact,

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one of his neighbors described him as
being a talk showed junkie. The

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episode was called Revealing Same Sex Secret
Crush, a recent trend that had been

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appearing on several other talk shows at
the same time. The premise was that

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six guests would be invited to publicly
meet their secret admirer, and after the

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admirer confessed to their feelings, both
people would be interviewed by Jenny Jones before

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the show. All of the guests
had to undergo pre screening. In these

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interviews, the producers of the show
told them that it was possible that their

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secret admirer could be male or female. But even though the episode was going

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to be titled Revealing Same Sex Secret
Crush, the producers failed to inform any

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of the guests that all of the
secret admirers would be the same sex as

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them. As a gay man,
Scott was going to be one of the

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six secret admirers. He had always
had a hard time with relationships and had

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been involved in a domestic violence incident
in the past. However, he was

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highly involved in the LGBT community,
even working at a gay bar in Pontiac,

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Michigan, where he lived. At
the beginning of the episode, Jenny

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Jones explained the premise to the audience. Each of the secret admirers were invited

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out to the stage, and Jenny
interviewed them about their feelings, asking how

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they met their crush and probe for
details about their romantic and sexual fantasies.

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To prevent each of the crushes from
overhearing, they were asked to sit backstage

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with soundproof headphones on. Finally,
once the interviews with the admirers were over,

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Jenny asked the crush to come on
stage in front of the live audience.

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The admirers admitted their feelings for their
crushes and then were immediately interviewed and

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asked whether they reciprocated the feelings.
Scott was the third secret admirer to reveal

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his secret crush, telling the audience
that he was infatuated with a man named

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Jonathan Schmidts who lived in the same
area as him. When Jonathan came on

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stage and realized that Scott was his
secret admirer. He gave Scott a bit

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of an awkward hug and said that
he was flattered by the attention, but

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told Scott, Jenny and the audience
that he was definitely heterosexual. The night

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after revealing same sex crush was taped, Scott and Jonathan decided to go out

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to a bar for a drink together. According to one of Scott's friends,

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despite Jonathan's insistence that he was heterosexual, the two men allegedly had a sexual

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encounter at some point the night before
going their separate ways. Two days later,

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Scott visited Jonathan's house and left behind
a suggestive, handwritten note addressed to

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him. After reading that note,
Jonathan didn't hesitate. He went to the

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bank withdrew some money, and he
used that money to buy a gun.

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He drove to the mobile home where
Scott lived and left the gun in his

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car while he went to knock on
the door. Scott opened the door and

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Jonathan asked him, were you the
one who left the note. Scott responded

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by smiling, leaving Scott standing in
the doorway. Jonathan walked back to his

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car and picked up the gun,
shot Scott in the chest, and then

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shot him a second time for good
measure. Scott collapsed and died almost immediately.

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Jonathan drove to a nearby gas station, called the police and told the

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operator that he just committed a murder. Before Jonathan went to trial, another

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court case took place that Jenny Jones
Show faced a negligent suit that had been

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filed by Scott's loved ones. They
argued that the show had irresponsibly put Scott

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and the other crushes who appeared on
the episode in a position where they felt

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ambushed by their admirers, and that
the show's producers should have considered the possibility

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of violence. Jonathan Schmidt's own family
members also blamed his appearance on The Jenny

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Jones Show for Scott's murder. The
talk shows. Jonathan's father said, they're

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absolutely rotten. Had Jenny Jones not
done this, this would have never happened.

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Most of the popular talk shows attempted
to avoid giving an official comment on

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the case, but eventually several of
them caved. Jerry Springer disagreed that the

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Jenny Jones Show could be found responsible
for Scott's death, saying quote to suggest

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we have reached a in our society
where people don't take responsibility for their own

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actions. That this man could justify
a murder because of a talk show is

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stupid on its face. Another talk
show host, Phil Donahue said that blaming

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the Jenny Jones Show for the murder
came very close to saying that producers have

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a responsibility to administer a sanity test
for all prospective guests. The case also

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resulted in a debate about how shock
value was used in talk shows, especially

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when an episode revolved around revealing private
information to somebody in an ambush. Several

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talk show hosts claimed that they changed
their protocols immediately after hearing about the incident,

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and the backlash that surrounded the Jenny
Jones Show after Scott's murder discouraged other

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talk show hosts from putting their guests
in similar situations. Many talk shows began

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to consider carrying out psychological profiling and
more in depth screening when deciding what guests

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to invite on the show. Four
years after filing in the lawsuit, Scott's

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family was awarded a settlement of almost
thirty million dollars later, The Jenny Jones

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Show appealed the verdict, and in
October two thousand and two, the judgment

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was overturned by the Michigan Court of
Appeals. Despite the jury previously being eight

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to one in favor of Scott's family, the court now found that Jonathan's response

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to Scott's crush had been unforseeable,
claiming that the Jenny Jones producers quote had

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no duty to anticipate and prevent the
act of murder committed by Schmidtz three days

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after leaving the studio and hundreds of
miles away. Jenny Jones herself, who

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had previously testified at the trial,
described herself as being elated about that verdict

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being reversed. Quote. Scott Emmendur's
murder was a horrible tragedy, but I

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have always believed that it was fundamentally
wrong and unfair to blame the show.

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At Jonathan's nineteen ninety six trial,
the defense relied on two factors that they

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believed had contributed to Scott's murder.
Jonathan had Graves disease and bipolar disorder,

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and the fact that Scott Ammendor had
been gay. They leaned on a legal

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term called gay panic, a defense
that can be used when a heterosexual perpetrator

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claims that they killed an LGBT victim
in a state of panic because of unwonted

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sexual advances, as well as alleging
that Jonathan had been thrown into a state

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of panic by Scott's advances. His
attorney told the jury about how Jonathan had

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a difficult childhood, including a traumatizing
experience where he was publicly humiliated, and

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that he had suffered from suicidal tendencies
as an adult. Regardless of Jonathan's medical

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history and the use of the gay
panic defense, the jury still found him

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guilty of Scott's murder. However,
they believed that Scott's mental state warranted a

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less severe charge, so the first
degree murder charges were reduced to second degree

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murder. When one of the jurors
was asked about the trial's verdict, they

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replied, quote, we saw the
show as a catalyst in a young man's

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life who had a lot of problems. It sent his life back into an

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emotional tael spin. The judge handed
him a sentence of twenty five to fifty

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years, which he appealed. The
appeal was granted and the conviction was overturned,

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but at his retrial, Jonathan was
found guilty a second time and received

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the same sentence. In twenty seventeen, Jonathan was released on parole after serving

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twenty one years of his sentence.
Although he was never officially charged with committing

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a hate crime, Scott's murder is
often described as one. The case led

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to increased public awareness of how the
gay panic defense could be used in court,

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with many people saying that the murder
was blamed on the Jenny Jones Show

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when it should have been viewed as
a consequence of homophobia. Jenny Jones herself

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stated that the crime had more to
do with homophobia than anything else, saying

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that quote it was tragic that Jonathan
Schmidts would rather have been labeled a murderer

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than a homosexual. The case has
been one of the most notorious examples of

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the gay panic defense providing a lighter
sentence to a murderer, and it was

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cited as an example of why the
defense should be banned across the United States

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of America. Since then, the
gay panic defense has been banned in eighteen

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American states, but in Michigan,
where Scott mmandor was murdered, it is

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still a valid defense In Court.
That is ten minute murder for today Brief

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and binge able True Crime. I'm
Joe, I'm the host, and thank

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you so much for listening. And
just as a side note, not that

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it has anything to do with this
trial or this case or this story.

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I've been to the Jenny Jones Show
in the to late nineties after this all

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happened. I don't think I knew
about it, but I was a guest

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in the audience, not a guest. I was in the audience, not

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a guest. Let me make that
clear. I was not a guest,

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but I was in the audience watching
the show because I knew people that were

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guests on the show. And if
I remember, there's a photo of me,

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a screen capture of me sitting in
the audience. You know when you

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come back from commercial break and everyone's
clapping for literally no reason. There's a

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screen capture where you can see me
back in the mid to late nineties.

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I'll try to post that if I
can remember. So for today's listener email

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questions, instead of doing one,
I'm going to do several that I've gotten

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that are just very short question and
answers. So let's do that. What

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is a movie or TV show that
you love that you don't think people would

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guess. That's from Cheryl in Arizona. The answer to that is the Good

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Place, fantastic show. What skill
or talent do you have that most people

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have never seen? That's Desiree in
Florida. I can juggle. I taught

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myself how during baseball in high school. What is one story outside of the

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more well known that you still think
about? That's Christian in New York Byron

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Smith and the home Invasion Homicide.
Look it up. I did an episode

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on it in August of twenty twenty. Samara in Texas wants to know what

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is your podcast set up? Specifically, what microphone do you use? This

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is the Sennheiser MKH four sixteen.
And finally, Laura in Florida. Do

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you call it a cooking sheet or
a cookie sheet? And I'm gonna be

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honest with you, I didn't know
that people called it a cooking sheet.

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I just thought it was a cookie
sheet because you put cookies on it to

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bake them. And I'm just now
finding out that people call it something else.

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I don't know if I'm wrong,
but it's going to be a cookie

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sheet for the rest of my life. I know that, and that's it.

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That's your episode for today. Thank
you so much for listening to another

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ten minute Murder podcas Cast episode,
and I'll see you on the next one. Bye.