In memoriam: William Schafer III, judge and Bolles case prosecutor

• He served as Pima County attorney, led the criminal division at the Arizona Attorney General's Office and served for 11 years as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge, retiring in 2000.

Zoom in: Schafer was Attorney General Bruce Babbitt's criminal division chief when he was tapped to lead the prosecution in the Bolles case in June 1976.

• Then-Arizona Senate President Bob Stump and other legislative leaders pushed for a special prosecutor who would be immune from political pressure in the high-profile murder case.
• Babbitt and then-Maricopa County Attorney Moise Berger instead put Schafer in charge of the case.
• Schafer won convictions and death sentences against suspects Max Dunlap and James Robison in 1977, though the Arizona Supreme Court overturned the convictions in 1980. After star witness John Adamson balked at testifying again, Schafer secured a conviction and death sentence against him later that year.

Between the lines: Schafer was off the case by the time Dunlap and Robison were re-tried in 1993.

Flashback: Schafer in 1967 faced off in court with famed attorney F. Lee Bailey, who defended accused murderer Charles Howard Schmid Jr., the so-called "Pied Piper of Tucson."

• Schmid was charged with murdering 15-year-old Alleen Rowe.
• Schmid, who had already been convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two other girls, pled guilty to second-degree murder midway through the trial. He was later stabbed to death in prison.