By James A. Kimble
Staff writer
May 06, 2008 06:00 am BRENTWOOD — Judge Robert Lynn is beginning to set the groundwork for the future of capital punishment in New Hampshire. Yesterday, he considered a series of challenges by lawyers for John "Jay" Brooks that could ultimately steer the course of the state's first capital murder trial since 1982. The judge is expected to rule over the next several weeks. Brooks, 55, a multimillionaire businessman, hopes his five-member legal team can knock out indictments that peg him as the ringleader of an effort to kill Derry resident Jack Reid, 57, on June 27, 2005. Defense lawyers claimed yesterday that prosecutors misapplied the law when indicting Brooks on two counts of capital murder, and single counts of conspiracy to commit capital murder and first-degree murder. They also hope to steer the course of selecting jurors who could sit during two trials — one that would determine guilt or innocence, and possibly a second one to decide if Brooks deserves to be executed. Prosecutors maintained yesterday that the state is well within its rights to seek the death penalty against Brooks, accusing him of planning Reid's murder with four other men in a murder-for-hire plot that was two years in the making. "I think we are splitting hairs because the state plans to show there was a lengthy plan to kill this man," Assistant Attorney General Karen Huntress told Lynn. Prosecutors plan on showing evidence that Brooks qualifies for the death penalty for two reasons. They say he engaged in murder for hire and a kidnapping when he and others lured Reid to a Deerfield farm. New Hampshire's capital murder law has been used only once to prosecute someone since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. That case in 1982 ended with an acquittal. Prosecutors hope to keep their indictments against Brooks intact as they pursue more information about the 2005 killing from other defense lawyers involved in Brooks' case. Prosecutors have asked for Lynn's approval to depose Las Vegas lawyer Richard Wright, who briefly represented Brooks and met with two co-defendants about a year before they were arrested. Senior Assistant Attorney General Janice Rundles said Wright agreed to hand over files of his meetings with the two men if he was ordered by a judge. Lynn questioned yesterday whether he has any power to compel Wright to cooperate with New Hampshire authorities because Wright is not established as a lawyer in this state. "I'm somewhat uncomfortable issuing an order in which I question my jurisdiction just because somebody will comply with it," Lynn said. Salem defense lawyer Patrick Donovan, hired by Wright, won a brief extension to fight the request yesterday. Lynn did not indicate how he might rule on efforts to dismiss indictments against Brooks. He spent more than two hours questioning prosecutors and defense lawyers about their arguments. New Hampshire has executed only three people in the last century. The last execution was in 1939 with the hanging of Howard Long of Alton for molesting and then killing a 10-year-old boy. Brooks is scheduled to go to trial in August.
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