This episode appears to be based on several different cases/incidents:
- The 1989 Charles Stuart case. On October 23, 1989, Charles Stuart, a furrier, and his pregnant wife Carol, a lawyer, got into their car after attending childbirth classes at Brigham and Women's Hospital. According to police, Stuart shot his wife in the head and himself in the stomach, and then called 911 on his cell phone. Carol Stuart died that night, after their son, Christopher, was delivered by Cesarean section. He suffered seizures due to oxygen deprivation, and died 17 days later after his father discontinued his life support. Stuart blamed the crime on a black man. The Boston police aggressively pursued black men without probable cause. They suspected one Willie Bennett, and on December 28, Stuart fingered him out of a lineup. The case against Bennett came to an abrupt close when Stuart's brother, Matthew, identified Charles Stuart as the killer. Stuart had been involved in an affair, and was having financial difficulties. On January 4, 1990, Charles jumped from the Tobin Bridge to his death.
- The 1927 Ruth Snyder case. May Ruth Snyder was an American murderer. Her execution in the electric chair at New York's Sing Sing Prison in 1928 for the murder of her husband, Albert Snyder, was recorded in a highly publicized photograph.
- Ripped from the pages of the 1943 novel Double Indemnity and its film adaptation (Double Indemnity (1944)).
Chip Zien, who plays a homeless man in this episode, later plays Mr Green in Night & Fog (1993) (episode 3.13).
Chris Noth (Detective Mike Logan) & Chip Zien (Homeless Man) also worked together on Fixed (2009) (episode 1.4), as Peter Florrick & Judge Lee Sutman respectively.