PONTIAC, Michigan (CNN) -- A jury on Friday found the "The Jenny Jones Show" and Warner Bros. negligent and responsible for the death of a gay man who was slain after revealing during the taping of a show that he had a crush on a male guest.

On its second day of deliberations, the jury of five women and four men awarded $25 million to the family of Scott Amedure.

Jurors watched the taped episode showing Amedure talking about a sexual fantasy involving Jonathan Schmitz and Schmitz's reaction when the fantasy is shown to him -- he buries his face in his hands.

Amedure, 32, was killed a few days after the 1995 taping. Schmitz was convicted in 1996 in Amedure's death but the verdict was thrown out on appeal. He awaits a retrial in August.

The show's producers argued they were not to blame for the slaying.

Amedure's parents, who sued the show and its distributor, Warner Bros., contended that a mentally unstable Schmitz was tricked by the producers into believing his secret admirer would be a female.


A jury deliberated nearly seven hours before ordering the show's producers to pay $25 million in damages

The plaintiffs maintained it was Schmitz's humiliation over the incident that led him to kill Amedure. The Amedure family's attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, had asked for $71.5 million in damages.

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Jenny Jones site
Scott's Web

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