According to The New York Times review, the title of Joseph F. Dinneen's story was "Murder in Massachusetts," but it was not mentioned in the credits due to a vague threat by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which did not wish any implication of inefficiency of its police, prosecutor, or court system. The story was based on the fact that two taxi drivers were identified by seven of eight witnesses as two of the three men who murdered a man during a 1934 theater robbery in Lynn, Massachusetts. Their trial was in progress for two weeks when the real killers were captured in New York City and confessed; the tax drivers were released, and two of the three criminals were eventually executed.
Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn had planned a bigger production, but after much political pressure from Massachusetts the film's budget and publicity were scaled down considerably.
When the movie was first shot, it was intended to be much longer than the released version. Authorities in the state of Massachusetts were unhappy with the content, which portrayed their judicial system as flawed and inefficient. As a result of pressure from the state, the producers edited out many scenes, so that the state wouldn't appear to be as inept as was originally portrayed. Many of the actors and actresses listed in the cast call had their scenes deleted. The producers decided to leave their names in the credits as a courtesy.
Several people are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names, if any): Ernie Adams (Mechanic), Ian Maclaren (Priest), Eddie Laughton (Cab Driver), Richard Cramer, Cyril Ring, Brandon Tynan and Landers Stevens.