AUGUSTA (AP) – A legislative committee on Wednesday threw its full support behind the appointments of trial judge Ellen Gorman to the state’s highest court and of Waterville attorney Mary Michaela Murphy to the Superior Court.

With 10-0 votes of support from the Judiciary Committee, Gorman and Murphy are almost certain to win the Senate’s confirmation when it meets Sept. 20 to take up those and other nominations posted by Gov. John Baldacci. Two committee members were absent.

Gorman and Murphy were each described as experienced, well-versed in the law and dedicated to the integrity of the court system. Both nominees expressed confidence in their ability to serve.

“I leave behind the job I love (to begin) the job I find somewhat intimidating,” said Gorman, who has served 18 years at the district and superior court levels.

But in a reference to the seven-member high court’s bench, Gorman noted that she is one of seven children and “I have a lifetime of experience” debating and compromising with the others. The Freeport resident said she is “excited and intrigued” by prospects of sitting a level above the trial process and helping to decide the merits of cases that come before the supreme court.

Gorman would replace retiring Justice Susan Calkins. A Cornell Law School graduate, Gorman served on the Workers Compensation Commission before her 1989 appointment to the District Court and 2000 appointment to the Superior Court. She stressed her experience in presiding over diverse criminal, civil, regulatory and family cases.

Some have been high-profile, such as the murder case against Brandon Thongsavanh for the knife slaying of a Bates College student during a street brawl in 2002. In 2006, Gorman sentenced Thongsavanh to 58 years in prison.

State homicide prosecutors’ experience in cases before Gorman “has been outstanding,” William Stokes, chief of the attorney general’s Criminal Division, told the committee. Stokes cited Gorman’s “proper judicial temperament … that will serve her and the people of the state of Maine well as an associate justice.”

Sen. David Hastings III, R-Fryeburg, who is an attorney, asked Gorman whether she would be an “activist judge,” noting that Maine has a reputation for not having an activist high court.

“I would say I am not an activist judge as the term sometimes is used,” Gorman responded. “I do not see myself as someone who is going to be creating new laws.”

Murphy, who lives in Rome, said her Waterville law practice serves “clients by and large (who are) ordinary Mainers whose lives have been turned upside down by legal problems.”

While the University of Maine School of Law graduate is widely known as a defense lawyer, she has experience as a prosecutor in the Kennebec County District Attorney’s office, where she fought aggressively for the rights of crime victims, said Julia Vigue, a private investigator.

Vigue, a former victim advocate, said Murphy has a “brilliant legal mind” and is “firmly dedicated to the truth and justice on which the judicial system is built.”

Murphy has also been involved in high-profile cases. She successfully argued an insanity defense for Mark Bechard, who was accused in a 1996 convent attack that left two nuns dead. Murphy also represented Dennis Dechaine after his conviction for the 1988 killing of a child in Bowdoin in Dechaine’s motion for a new trial.

Supporters described Murphy as a formidable courtroom adversary, but Murphy told the committee “if confirmed, I have much to learn” as a judge.

She said she’s willing to take turns sitting at the District Court level to help ease its heavy caseload. She was also asked whether juror’s pay should be increased. A bill in the Legislature to increase it from $10 to $50 per day has been carried over to the 2008 session.

“We need to show more respect for the sacrifice they’re making … it’s a huge sacrifice,” said Murphy, adding that she was not necessarily calling for an increase that would make up for all lost wages.

AP-ES-09-12-07 1504EDT