Solomon "Sol" Wachtler is an American former jurist, Republican politician, attorney, and author from the state of New York. He served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. Wachtler's most famous quote, made shortly after his appointment as Chief Judge, is that district attorneys could get grand juries to "indict a ham sandwich".
A graduate of Washington and Lee University, Wachtler served as a councilman and then a town supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead, New York. In 1968, he was appointed as a state trial court judge. Four years later, Wachtler was elected to the New York Court of Appeals, where he served for nearly 20 years and authored nearly 400 opinions. Gov.