Daughter Francesca Eastwood, her mother Frances Fisher, her father Clint Eastwood, and his wife Dina Eastwood, all appeared in this movie.
Denis Leary stated that he had never watched this movie, believing that his head would explode if he saw himself acting in a scene next to Clint Eastwood.
In the novel, the death-row inmate was white. Clint Eastwood changed his race for this movie to "make it more relevant." The book author deliberately chose to make the inmate white because it would be more believable that people would fight for him as witnessed in the Illinois State Freedom Project.
The movie was a failure at the box office, earning back less than half of its production cost, and making it Clint Eastwood's second worst performing picture of the 1990s after White Hunter Black Heart (1990).
Playing Kate Everett, daughter of Steve Everett (Clint Eastwood), was Francesca Eastwood, the real-life daughter of Eastwood.