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 because of 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 taxicab 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 taxicab drivers were released and two of the three criminals were eventually executed.
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.
Studio chief Harry Cohn had planned a bigger production, but after much political pressure from Massachusetts the film's budget and publicity was scaled down considerably.