Goofs

When Michelle drives away from the bar in her car, she turns on her lights. Then, in the next shot, she turns them on again.

When picking the lock to Michelle's door, it is a full steel door in a street, but when he enters he comes in through a glass door from a backyard.

Immediately after Michelle Ziegler's car hits the truck, its windshield is intact. Later in the movie when Steve Everett is looking at the car, there is a big hole in the windshield.

When Everett is speeding on the highway past a rental bus on his left headed to Lowenstein's house, he runs along the guardrail creating large sparks from the collision. Later in the chase, after avoiding the pursuit vehicles, he spins his Mustang around and there is no damage whatsoever to the right side of his car.

When Steve pulls into the parking lot at the grocery store, he opens the door and picks up the melon off the ground. He does not close the car door, but after he puts the melon in the garbage, we see the door is closed.

Family members of condemned inmates in California are not allowed to attend executions.

California does not use a machine to administer the drugs used to conduct lethal injections. Rather, it is done manually.

Gail Beechum make a draw for her father and sign it. After that, Mr. Ziegler gives Steve a draw made by Michelle as a child, which isn't the same but it's very similar from Gail's draw, but has Gail's sign.

When Steve Everett picks up Mrs. Russell to drive her to Mr. Lowenstein's home, his car is already overheated and steaming. It's highly probable that his engine would have seized long before they made it to Lowenstein's; thus, Lowenstein would not have known to call the governor and the execution would have proceeded as scheduled.

Little girl Gail finishes her "green pastures" drawing in prison when visiting her father, on the day he is going to be executed. It is clear that Steve Everett cannot find that drawing afterwards between the dead reporter's things, as the reported had died the night before. Nevertheless, the drawing that Mr Everett finds in the reporter's things (which contains some stylized figures representing people, circa minute 85) is not the one that Gail finishes in the prison (which does not contain any human figures, circa minute 60). The drawing that Mr Everett finds is therefore an older one.

Camera reflected in window during the execution scene.

When Everett first visits Mrs. Russell, the bottom part of a light stand with a set of scrims can be seen on the front porch in the shot from above.

The crime the plot centers on takes place in Richmond, in Contra Costa County. The prosecutors Everett tangles with in an effort to free the condemned man are at the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland. A murder in Richmond would be tried in Superior Court there or at the Contra Costa County seat in Martinez.

Everett drives from Oakland to San Quentin more than once on the same day he takes his daughter to the zoo. Given the traffic conditions in the Bay Area and the 30 miles or so from the Tribune building to the prison and the bureaucratic hassles of visiting a prisoner, the time line becomes highly suspect.

When the execution begins, the prison guard reads an order saying that the defendant was convicted in Alameda County Superior Court. The crime took place in Richmond, California which is located in Contra Costa County. Therefore the order would come from the Superior Court in Contra Costa County.

When Steve calls information to be connected to Dale Porterhouse at Stokes and Whitney; he gives his pager number to the receptionist, he then sets the prop phone down on the table without pressing the button to hang up the call. The type of handset used has a button to place and end calls.