In 2002 a New York state court ruled that private citizens were not allowed to prosecute criminal charges because it violates a defendant's right to due process.
This episode appears to be based on the following:
- The 1991 Rodney King beating case. King was an African American taxi driver who became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. A witness, George Holliday, videotaped much of the beating from his apartment balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA. The footage shows four officers surrounding King, several of them striking him repeatedly while other officers stood by. Parts of the footage were aired around the world and raised public concern about police treatment of minorities in the United States. Four officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force. Three were acquitted of all charges. The jury acquitted the fourth of assault with a deadly weapon but failed to reach a verdict on the use of excessive force. The jury deadlocked at 8-4 in favor of acquittal at the state level. The acquittals are generally considered to have triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots, in which 55 people were killed and over 2000 were injured, ending only when the California national guard was called in. The acquittals also led to the federal government's obtaining grand jury indictments for violations of King's civil rights. The trial of the four officers in a federal district court ended on April 16, 1993: two officers were found guilty and subsequently imprisoned, while the other two were acquitted again.
- The 1998 James Byrd, Jr. case. In June 1998 in Jasper, TX, an African-American, James Byrd, Jr., was horrifically lynched-by-dragging by three white men. They tied Byrd's ankles to the bumper of a pickup truck & dragged him down an asphalt road for 3 miles. Byrd was conscious until his right arm & head were severed from his body about halfway down the road. The killers left his torso at a black cemetery. One killer, Shawn Berry, was executed in 2011. Another, John King, was executed in April 2019. The third, Lawrence Brewer, received a sentence of life imprisonment & will be eligible for parole in 2038. No motive for the murder has ever been revealed. Early in this episode, a black pastor mentions "Jasper" to Van Buren.
- The 1955 Emmett Till case. Till was an African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 at the age of 14, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of his killers drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement
- The term "driving while black".
- The term "blue wall of silence".
The title of the episode 'DWB' is an abbreviation meaning Driving While Black.
In the opening scene Lenny Briscoe checks out the victim's old Bulova watch and says, "It stopped tickin' when he took a lickin'".
This is a reference to Timex watches (not Bulova). Their slogan, "Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'" alluded to the durability of their watches. The famous line was usually uttered by John Cameron Swayze, who even appeared in a commercial where he abused a couple watches to demonstrate their hardiness.
This is a reference to Timex watches (not Bulova). Their slogan, "Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'" alluded to the durability of their watches. The famous line was usually uttered by John Cameron Swayze, who even appeared in a commercial where he abused a couple watches to demonstrate their hardiness.
Michael McCormick has played four different roles over the course of the series:
- Episode 6.7 Humiliation (1995) - Marty Gerber.
- Episode 9.2 DWB (1998) - Dietrick's Attorney.
- Episode 12.23 Oxymoron (2002) - Nicky Avakian's Attorney.
- Episode 19.7 Zero (2008) - Judge Mark Brannigan.