This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
- The 1995 Patrizia Reggiani (a.k.a. "The Black Widow") case. Reggiani, an Italian convicted criminal and former socialite, was convicted in a highly publicized trial of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci.
- The 1999 Stanley Faulder case. Faulder was the first Canadian citizen to be executed in the United States since 1952. Faulder, a Jasper, Alberta native, was convicted of murdering Inez Scarborough Phillips, a 75-year-old woman, in Texas in 1975 during a robbery in her house. He was caught, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1977. Faulder had previously served three years in prison for auto theft in Canada. Despite diplomatic complaints by the Canadian government, Faulder was executed by lethal injection on June 17, 1999. His last appeal was rejected about an hour before his death.
John Doman played five different characters over the course of the series:
- Episode 1.22 The Blue Wall (1991) - Bailiff.
- Episode 7.20 We Like Mike (1997) - Sgt. Frank Gottlieb.
- Episode 9.9 True North (1998) - Mr. Stephens.
- Episode 13.18 Maritime (2003) - Howard Ridgeway.
- Episode 18.6 Political Animal (2008) - Jim Gilles.
Guest star John Doman (Mr. Stevens) will guest star with Angie Harmon (A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael) again on the TNT show Rizzoli & Isles (2010). John Doman will play the character of Paddy Doyle, the biological father of Sasha Alexander's character Maura Isles.