Jeremy Irons met the real Claus von Bülow three years after the release of the film. Irons commented, "he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know." Irons recalled that von Bülow asked him if he was aware that the real Alan Dershowitz was (at the time) representing Leona Helmsley and Mike Tyson. Irons replied that he was aware of that, to which von Bülow quipped: "I don't suppose you've been asked to play either of them, have you?"
The two black brothers Alan is trying to save from death row is based on the 1980 case of the Tison brothers in Arizona. They helped their father escape from prison, and were charged with murder when he killed four people soon after. The real Alan Dershowitz got their sentence commuted to life in prison. The brothers were also white in real life.
In real life, one of the law students on this case was Eliot Spitzer, who later became Governor of New York.
Martha Sunny von Bulow died December 6, 2008, at age 76. She spent the last 28 years of her life in a coma.
Jeremy Irons's Oscar winning performance in this film is his only Academy Award nomination as of 2021.
Alan Dershowitz: briefly, in profile, as one of the appellate judges, just as they are sitting down at the appeal.