Law & Order

The parts of this episode dealing with the "black rage" defense appear to be "ripped from the headlines" of the Colin Ferguson case; Ferguson used the affirmative defense as mitigation in the Long Island Railroad shootings of December 7, 1993 that resulted in the deaths of six people and wounding of nineteen others. During the course of the trial, Ferguson fired his counsel and undertook a pro se defense. Upon the jury's rejection of the "black rage" assertion, Ferguson was sentenced to 315 years, 8 months on combined multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.