The "Innocence Project," for which Cary (Matt Czuchry) is said to have interned, is a real organization that was founded in 1992 to assist and exonerate wrongly accused prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. One of the co-founders of the project, Barry Scheck, appears as himself in a cameo in this episode.
The case depicted is based on Cameron Todd Willingham who was white and convicted of killing his three daughters by arson. He was executed in Texas in 2004. After his execution it was found the arson investigation was flawed and it was concluded that Willingham was innocent.
On March 9, 2011, Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation that abolished the death penalty in Illinois that went into effect on July 1, 2011.
The title is ironic. Not only does it refer to the amount of time that the team have to save their client but it also is the ninth hour of the show in its second season.
This is the highly acclaimed episode in which Alicia, Diane, Will and Kalinda rush to save a man on Death Row, played by The Walking Dead (2010)'s Chad L. Coleman.