The "jury in Los Angeles" that Tate refers to at the very beginning of the episode is the jury from the infamous trial in which four white L.A. police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King. The verdict resulted in city-wide riots that left more than 50 people dead. The verdict was handed down five months before this episode first aired.
In this episode, Sergeant Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) and Detective Mike Logan (Chris Noth) investigate the assassination of the leader of the African-American Congress (AAC). In Entrapment (1997), Detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Detective Ray Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) investigate the attempted murder of the new AAC leader, and Lennie notes that Logan had investigated the former leader's murder. Joe Morton portrayed Roland Books in the first episode. Ron Cephas Jones portrays Books in the second episode while other actors reprise their roles.
Actor Eric Bogosian who plays Defense Attorney Gary Lowenthal, went on to replace Captain Jimmy Deacon (played by Jamey Sheridan) as Captain Danny Ross, commanding officer of the Major Case Squad from 2006-2010.
The episode appears to be based on a number of high-profile assassinations over the years, including:
- The 1965 assassination of Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little). He was assassinated on February 21, 1965, at the age of 39. He was about to address his followers in New York when three gunmen (Thomas Hagan, Norman Butler, and Thomas Johnson) rushed the stage and fired at him. Hagan was beaten by the crowd, whilst Butler and Johnson were eventually found by the police. All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.
- The 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King. King was killed on April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray. (King was 39 and left behind a widow and four children.) Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was eventually arrested on June 8, 1968, in London at Heathrow Airport. He was extradited to the United States to be charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, he entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but he was unsuccessful. He died in prison on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70.
- The 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was killed on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was riding in a presidential motorcade through Dallas's Dealey Plaza. Kennedy--riding with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally and Connally's wife Nellie Connally--was fatally shot by former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald firing in ambush from a nearby building. Governor Connally was seriously wounded in the attack. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally recovered from his injuries. Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department 70 minutes after the initial shooting. Oswald was charged under Texas state law with the murder of Kennedy as well as that of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit, who Oswald fatally shot a short time after the assassination. At 11:21 a.m. Sunday, November 24, 1963--as live television cameras covered his transfer to the Dallas County Jail--Oswald was fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though it was later overturned on appeal; Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.
- The 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, the brother of John F. Kennedy, was the 42-year-old junior senator from New York and a Democratic presidential candidate. On June 5, 1968, Kennedy won dual victories in the 1968 California and South Dakota presidential primary elections Senator Kennedy spoke to journalists and campaign workers at a live televised celebration from the stage of his headquarters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Shorty after midnight Pacific Daylight Time, he left the podium and exited through the kitchen hallway, where he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired from a handgun. ( A freelance newspaper reporter recorded the shooting on audio tape, and the aftermath was captured on film.) He was later pronounced dead at 1:44 AM on June 6 at the Good Samaritan Hospital, about 26 hours after he had been shot. The shooter was 24 year-old Palestinian/Jordanian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan. In 1969, Sirhan was convicted of murdering the senator and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972.
- The 1980 murder of John Lennon committed by Mark David Chapman. Lennon, a musician and former member of The Beatles, was fatally shot in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City, on the evening of 8 December 1980. The perpetrator was Mark David Chapman, an unemployed resident of Hawaii. Chapman stated that he was incensed by Lennon's lifestyle and public statements, especially his much-publicized remark about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" and the lyrics of his later songs "God" and "Imagine". Chapman also said he was inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman pleaded guilty to murdering Lennon and was given a sentence of 20-years-to-life imprisonment. He has been denied parole ten times since he became eligible in 2000.
- The 1935 Huey Long assassination allegedly committed by Carl Weiss. Huey Pierce Long Jr., nicknamed "The Kingfish," was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and was a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination on September 8, 1935. He was allegedly killed by Carl Weiss, who confronted and shot Huey Long in the Capitol building in Baton Rouge. Weiss was cornered and killed in turn by Long's bodyguards, being shot sixty-one times. However, many of Weiss' family, some historians and even Colonel Francis C. Grevemberg of the Louisiana State Police said that Weiss was not armed and only struck Long. It was Long's bodyguards who accidentally shot Long, not Weiss. In an unusual public response, thousands attended his funeral.
- Arthur Bremer's assassination attempts, notably of 1972 presidential candidate George Wallace. Arthur Herman Bremer shot George Corley Wallace Jr. in Laurel, Maryland, USA on 15 May 1972, paralyzing him. Originally sentenced to 63 years in prison for his crime, Bremer's sentence was reduced to 53 years on appeal. He also admitted to having plans to assassinate Richard Nixon twice but failed to do so.