The improbable accused killing of a day laborer by one of the most respected businessmen in New Hampshire drew a host of medical and mental health questions. A range of specialists from the Forensic Panel examined records on psychiatry, medicine, neuropsychology, endocrinology, and radiology at the request of the Attorney General (now U.S. Senator) Kelly Ayotte in the murder case of Brooks, who had once considered a run for Governor. The case broke only after years of investigation pieced together a single lead from a carefully orchestrated execution using agents for hire to help Brooks kill the victim himself. Attorney General Ayotte made Brooks the first death penalty trial in New Hampshire in decades.
The Forensic Panel’s scrutiny of relevant psychiatric history culminated in Brooks withdrawing his entire psychiatric and psychological evidence to evade the anticipated videotaped interviewing. Preparation by Forensic Panel specialists contributed to drawing out salient psychological evidence at trial and contributed to the defendant’s murder conviction. The case continues to linger in New Hampshire justice circles, in part because of the unclear roles his wife and son, in the close knit Brooks family, may have played in obstruction of justice or as co-conspirators to the elder Brooks’ murderous scheme.
