'Jenny Jones' killer to be released from prison

Jonathan Schmitz listening to testimony during his murder trial at the Oakland County Court November 5, 1996. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)

A Michigan man convicted in the 1995 murder of another man who expressed romantic interest in him on national television is expected to be released from prison.

Jonathan Schmitz was 24 years old when his acquaintance Scott Amedure, 32, revealed he was romantically interested in him during a taping of the Jenny Jones Show. Schmitz, who said he wasn't gay, fatally shot Amedure in Lake Orion three days after the taping.

Schmitz turned himself in to police, saying he killed Amedure because he was embarrassed on national television. He was sentenced 25 to 50 years for second-degree murder.

Schmitz, now 47, was granted parole after a March hearing and is scheduled to be released from Parnall Correctional Institution next week.

Talk show host Jenny Jones, left, leaving the courtroom at Oakland County Courthouse in Pontiac, Michigan, April 12, 1999, with Ed and Debby Glavin, executive producers for "The Jenny Jones Show." (REUTERS/John Hillery)

Scott's older brother, Frank Amedure Jr., said he's troubled by the parole decision and that he's unsure Schmitz "learned what he should have" in prison.

"I wanted assurance that the (parole board's) decision was not based on just good behavior in prison," he said. "I'd like to know that he learned something, that he's a changed man, is no longer homophobic and has gotten psychological care."

Geoffrey Fieger, who served as an attorney for the Amedure family, said that everybody involved in the Jenny Jones Show also deserved imprisonment.

"That show set him (Schmitz) up and certainly took Scott Amedure's life for no reason," Fieger said.

The episode never aired but clips were shown on news shows.

The Michigan Department of Corrections doesn't list an attorney for Schmitz.