This episode appears to be based on the following:
- The United States territorial jurisdiction law.
- The 1966 Richard Speck case. Speck was an American mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on the night of July 13 into the early morning hours of July 14, 1966. He was convicted at trial and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was later overturned due to issues with jury selection at his trial. Speck died of a heart attack after 25 years in prison. In 1996, videotapes featuring Speck were shown before the Illinois State Legislature to highlight some of the illegal activity that took place in prisons.
- The 1963 "Career Girls Murders" case. This was the name given by the media to the murders of Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie in their apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on August 28, 1963. George Whitmore, Jr., was charged with the murders and other crimes, but he was later cleared. Richard "Ricky" Robles, the true culprit, was later found guilty of the murders.
Percodan is a combination drug: each tablet contains 325 mg of aspirin and 4.8 mg of oxycodone hydrochloride. It was first introduced in the United States in 1950, and for several decades it was a widely used medication for post-operative pain. However, it started to fall out of favor in the early 1990's. By the late 1990's, its use had all but been replaced by acetaminophen/oxycodone combo drugs like Percocet.
A rarity for the series, there are several walls of text which lay out the rest of the case in detail just before the credits roll.
David Fonteno has portrayed seven different characters over the course of the series:
- Episode 1.17 Mushrooms (1991) - Coach.
- Episode 3.16 Jurisdiction (1993) - Gavin McCrea.
- Episode 4.19 Sanctuary (1994) - Jimmy Graves.
- Episode 6.4 Jeopardy (1995) - CSU Tech Murrau.
- Episode 7.18 Mad Dog (1997) - Munro.
- Episode 10.24 Vaya Con Dios (2000) - John Groban.
- Episode 11.10 Whose Monkey Is It Anyway? (2001) - Judge Derek Hafner.
- Episode 18.12 Submission (2008) - Judge Derek Hafner.
- Episode 19.20 Exchange (2009) - Judge Derek Hafner.
Mark Blum has played three different characters over the course of the series:
- Episode 3.16 Jurisdiction (1993) - Brooklyn A.D.A. Frank Lazar.
- Episode 5.15 Seed (1995) - Michael Aronson.
- Episode 9.5 Agony (1998) - Brooklyn A.D.A. Frank Lazar.
- Episode 20.5 Dignity (2009) - Expert Doctor.