J.D. Cannon (Chet Burton) and Stephen Elliott (Judge Markham) died only one day apart: Cannon on May 20, 2005 and Elliott on May 21, 2005.
The character of Chet Burton is based on famed Texas defense attorneys Percy Foreman, Dick DeGuerin, and Richard 'Racehorse' Haynes.
This episode appears to be based several separate cases:
- The 1980 Daingerfield church shooting. A shooting which was a mass murder that occurred at the First Baptist Church in Daingerfield, Texas, on June 22, 1980. Alvin Lee King III--a former high school teacher, armed with a scoped, semi-automatic XM16E1-type derivative, an M1 carbine, and two revolvers--killed five people and wounded 10 others. He went on this rampage after members of the church had declined his request to appear as character witnesses on his behalf in a trial in which he was charged with raping his daughter. King was arrested after shooting himself. He was charged with five counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder but, before he could be convicted, he committed suicide in his prison cell on January 19, 1982.
- The 1981 murder Ken McElroy. McElory was an American criminal and convicted attempted murderer who resided in Skidmore, Missouri, United States. He was known as "the town bully", and his unsolved killing became the focus of international attention. Over the course of his life, McElroy was accused of dozens of felonies, including assault, child molestation, statutory rape, arson, animal cruelty, hog and cattle rustling, and burglary. In all, he was indicted 21 times but escaped conviction each time, except for the last. In 1981, McElroy was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of the town's 70-year-old grocer Ernest "Bo" Bowenkamp. McElroy successfully appealed the conviction and was released on bond, after which he engaged in an ongoing harassment campaign against Bowenkamp and others who were sympathetic to Bowenkamp, including the town's Church of Christ minister. He appeared in a local bar, the D&G Tavern, armed with an M1 Garand rifle and bayonet, and later threatened to kill Bowenkamp. The next day, McElroy was shot to death in broad daylight as he sat with his wife Trena in his pickup truck on Skidmore's main street. He was struck by bullets from at least two different firearms, in front of a crowd of people estimated as numbering between 30 and 46. To date, no one has been charged in connection with McElroy's death.
- Partially ripped from the 1975 Italian film The Flower in His Mouth (1975).
J.D. Cannon plays a Texas lawyer who uses western theatrics as part of his defense tactics. He tells Stone that, in 27 years of practicing law, he has never lost a criminal case. Interestingly, in a reversal of roles 27 years earlier, Cannon played Assistant District Attorney Ashley on The Defenders (1961). In another reversal of roles, Cannon was well known for playing New York Chief of Detectives Peter B. Clifford, who had to put up with the western antics of New Mexico U.S. Marshal Sam McCloud on McCloud (1970).