[Editor's note: Joseph W. Bellacosa served the New York Court of Appeals from 1975 to 2000 as chief clerk, counsel, chief administrative judge and associate judge. The Law Journal proudly presents this latest edition in an occasional series in which the retired judge shares reflections from his long tenure in New York's judiciary.]
In September 1972, then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller appointed a special prosecutor named Maurice Nadjari in an extraordinary executive order that superseded prosecutorial authority of elected local district attorneys.
