Christopher Meloni has said that the scene in which he actually urinates in a bucket generated the most complaints to HBO during the show's run.
Ginzburg dresses up like Susan Hayward for his execution. Susan Hayward was an actress, one of her best known roles was playing Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958), which is based an actual events. Barbara Graham was a prostitute who was on death row, she was sentenced to death for her role in the robbery and murder of an elderly woman in 1955. Despite the evidence, and her three accomplices testifying that she was the one who killed the victim, Graham maintained her innocence to the very end.