(L-R) Mike and Cynthia McLelland, Mark Hasse and Eric Williams.

Click Here to Watch This Broadcast

48 HOURS: “Target Justice” was Saturday’s #1 broadcast at 10:00 PM with viewers and adults 25-54, and posted week-to-week growth, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for Dec. 10.

48 HOURS delivered 4.36 million viewers and a 1.3/04 with adults 25-54, the demographic that matters most to those who advertise in news. Compared to the previous week, 48 HOURS was up +18% in adults 25-54 (from 1.1/03) and added +90,000 viewers (from 4.27m, +2%). Compared to the same night last year, 48 HOURS was up +30% in adults 25-54 and +8% in viewers.

Saturday’s broadcast featured Richard Schlesinger and 48 HOURS’ investigation into the attacks on prosecutors and their families in Texas and the hunt for whoever did it. In a daring attack, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot dead outside the courthouse in January 2013. Then, in March 2013, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were killed in their home.

Initially the investigation focused on the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group in Texas, which declared it would get revenge against law enforcement. But there was someone else on Hasse’s list of cases police spoke with as well. Eric Williams, a lawyer and justice of the peace, had been busted for stealing computer monitors from a county office. Police checked Williams out. They found no gunshot residue on his hands. And, initially, Williams had a credible alibi. The investigation turned when police got an email with a tip – a tip that seemed like a taunt to investigators. Three weeks after the McLellands’ deaths, Eric Williams was charged with capital murder. Turns out, Williams didn’t act alone.

48 HOURS: “Target Justice” is produced by Tom Seligson, Allen Alter and Susan Mallie. Lucy Scott and Claire St. Amant are the field producers. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Marlon Disla, Mike Mongulla, Alan Miller, Marcus Balsam and George Baluzy are the editors. Linda Martin is the update producer. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

Follow 48 HOURS on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Listen to 48 HOURS podcasts at Play.it.

* * *

Press Contact:  

Richard Huff                          212-975-3328                 huffr@cbsnews.com