In the scene when Captain Montgomery goes to D.A. Karnacki's office, the D.A. is drinking the famous scotch from the episode Last Call (2010).
Beckett says that 'Forbidden Planet' was the inspiration for 'Star Wars'. Forbidden Planet has a quasi-military ship on a long term deep space mission stop by a xeno-archeological station researching ancient alien technology. The captain, doctor, and science officer get pulled into a life and death crisis and the captain gets the girl. This inspired Star Trek.
While being interrogated, the defendant's cousin remarks that the police have him pulling a "Bigger Thomas." Bigger Thomas was the protagonist in the novel Native Son, by Richard Wright in which a young black man is accused of killing a wealthy white girl.