After a 17-year-old girl is found with a bullet through the back of her head in the woods of Katy, Texas, a young man comes forward who claims to be an eyewitness. Investigators are shocked by the unusual deal he’s made with the DA. Is the eyewitness telling the truth — or is he involved in the murder? And will the prosecution convince the jury that the defendant is the real killer?

An unexpected tip helps police crack the case involving an unidentified shooting victim in Louisville, Ky.; three scared co-defendants are asked to testify against the killer.

A mother of five young boys is found shot to death in her Cleveland, Ohio apartment. A witness emerges, guiding detectives to a critical piece of evidence–and ultimately, a suspect. Going into trial, prosecutors think their case is airtight, but when their key witness falters on the stand, the veteran defense team is poised and ready to dismantle the prosecution’s case.

In Birmingham Alabama a mother of a two-year-old boy is found stabbed to death in her own bedroom. Investigators have a mystery on their hands when they learn the killer opened the victim’s front door with a key and stole her diamond ring. In Cleveland Ohio, two 19 year-old men are shot and killed during a party at an abandoned house. All signs point to a good friend of the victims’ as the shooter but no one actually saw him pull the trigger. With no DNA or murder weapon found, the state needs to convince a jury the defendant is a cold-blooded killer.

In Liberty City, Miami a well-liked husband and wife are brutally murdered in an ambush shooting. The eyewitness to the crime is the couple’s ten-year-old daughter. She is the only thing linking the suspect to the crime. It’s up to her to sway the jurors as she gives an emotional testimony in the hopes of putting her parents’ killer behind bars.

When a Honduran immigrant is found stabbed to death in his Miami apartment, his brother claims it was a suicide. But as investigators dig deeper, all evidence points to the surviving brother. His attorney claims self-defense, citing Florida’s stand your ground law–but the prosecution fights hard to send the defendant to trial, and ultimately, to prison.

The case of a fatal shooting in Cleveland takes a strange turn when a witness comes forward claiming the victim was shot by his best friend.

In Cleveland, Detectives Mike Smith and Walley Everett investigate the murder of a young woman who’s body is burned beyond recognition. A key witness comes forward who leads them to the suspect. But when the case moves to court, the key witness could become the prosecution’s main liability.

In Memphis, Tennessee a man’s body is found dumped in a field. Despite every effort, the case goes cold and the murderer remains a mystery. For six years the victim’s father investigates the murder on his own, trying to find out who killed his son. When an unexpected tip leads to the arrest of a close friend of the victim, the victim’s family worries that there is not enough evidence to put the murderer away for life. And the details of the brutal killing are finally revealed in court.

In Harris County, Texas investigators are called to an abandoned SUV, its interior covered in blood. The vehicle’s owner, a 20-year-old single mother, is nowhere to be found. The Sheriff’s department believes she’s been murdered, and her boyfriend is the main suspect–but he’s not talking. Thirteen hundred miles away an SUV slams into a house, its driver shot dead behind the wheel. Detectives soon have an ID on his shooter, but he’s fled the state, and a manhunt is on.

In Harris County Texas, a young mother of three daughters is found in her trailer with her throat slashed. Investigators arrest her alleged killer with the help of a key witness, but the defense turns the tables when the case goes to trial. And in Birmingham, Alabama, a popular man is shot blocks from his home, but manages to name the shooter but investigators need the help of witnesses to put away the killer.

A murder case involving the stabbing death of a Cleveland grandfather ends in a surprising courtroom decision; an Alabama killer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the justice system.

In Cleveland, Ohio, an aspiring police officer is gunned down during a vicious nightclub brawl, and it’s all caught on tape. Investigators pore over more than 80 hours of surveillance footage, hoping to identify the triggerman, but the video doesn’t show who fired the fatal shot. With so few witnesses willing to talk, the state needs to use the video to convince the jury of the events that led to this cold-blooded killing.

One of the most bizarre The First 48 cases becomes a compelling After the First 48 special. When a body is discovered buried in a basement for six months in an Old Louisville home, the home’s owner and his boyfriend are charged with murder. Each claims the other is responsible for the gruesome crime. In two separate trials, the shocking details of their life together come out. And all of Louisville wonders: What really happened in that house?

In Harris county Texas, a 41-year-old woman is killed in her home by four masked men. Investigators have an idea of who did, but can they get enough evidence to prove it? Then, when one of the defendants faces a jury, the defense turns the table and puts the Harris County Sheriffs’ department on trial.

In the Dallas Neighborhood of Oak Cliff, two young men are shot in the head inside a drug house, their bodies, found burned in the trunk of a car. Investigators scramble to find eyewitnesses to the crime and the three suspects, but at trial, no one could say who pulled the trigger. It would be up to the prosecution to paint a gruesome, vivid picture of this brutal crime in the hopes of securing a capital murder conviction.