A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn asks E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy if the decision from a judge was close. Jack responds, "More like the Yankees and the Red Sox. It's inevitable the Red Sox won't be there when it counts but they still have to play all the games." This episode aired on September 22nd, 2004. On October 20th, the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, after being down in the series, 3-0. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series a week later, for the first time in 86 years, after sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals.
Dennis Farina's first appearance as Detective Joe Fontana. It was also the first time he used the phrase "We're authorized" when trying to get access to something. Farina had ad-libbed the line and it became a recurring event in the course of his appearances.
After meeting Detective Joe Fontana, Detective Ed Green says he "...wasn't sure if he was a cop or a wiseguy". Dennis Farina was a cop in Chicago before becoming an actor, and in his film debut, Michael Mann's Thief (1981), he has a small role as the henchman of a mobster as well as later playing a vicious mafia boss in Midnight Run (1988) opposite Robert De Niro.
According to Dick Wolf, Detective Joe Fontana is named after Wolf's old friend, producer Tom Fontana.
This episode appears to be based on the 2003 Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.