AUGUSTA – Frustrated with “lenient” sentences for child-murderers and husband killer Vella Gogan, the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee on Monday voted unanimously to form a study commission to investigate appropriate sentences for child-murderers. Then the panel members threatened to replace judges and prosecutors “to get the message across.”

Before taking action on the study commission, the committee voted 8-4 against a bill that would have reinstated the death penalty for child murder. The committee also tabled until next month a bill to make bestiality a crime.

As they were debating the child-murder bill, long-standing committee frustration with lenient sentences exploded into a discussion of the Gogan case.

In Kennebec County Superior Court on Wednesday, Vella Gogan, 57, of Hartland received a six-year prison term in a plea bargain agreement after she admitted shooting and dismembering her husband, Gene Gogan. Defense attorneys said Gogan was a classic case of battered woman syndrome.

In the Gogan murder and in many child-murder cases, the prosecutors are so afraid of losing that they “fold the tent too early, too often, in too many cases,” according to Senate committee Chairman Michael McAlevey, R-Waterboro. The chairman suggested that the Legislature might have to start replacing judges and prosecutors “to get the message across” that the public is furious about lenient sentences.

“People think [Gogan] got away scot-free. The people are outraged. That was a heinous crime,” said House committee Chairman Edward Povich, D-Ellsworth.

The public reaction to the Gogan sentence is understandable, said N. Paul Gauvreau, chief of the attorney general’s criminal division. “But if the Attorney General’s Office went for a longer sentence, just as many people would have asked, ‘Why is the AG picking on this woman who was trapped in an abusive marriage?’ It goes both ways,” he said. Four separate psychological evaluations found that the woman had diminished capacity because of three decades of battering, and some evaluators thought she should be exonerated. Taking the case to trial could have resulted in a shorter sentence or an innocent verdict, he said.

The Gogan sentence was reviewed and approved by Attorney General G. Steven Rowe, Gauvreau told the committee.

Gauvreau appeared before the committee to oppose LD 1130, which sought to limit the use of plea bargaining and to establish minimum sentences for murder or manslaughter of children under age 6. The bill raised serious questions about the separation of powers among the legislative, executive and judicial branches, he said. Having the legislative branch “instruct” the judiciary on longer sentences is not constitutional, he said.

Convicted child-murderers get an average prison sentence of only five years because no case is more complex and difficult to prosecute, Gauvreau told the committee. In the proliferation of “shaken baby” cases, the suspect usually has no criminal history and acted out of extreme rage. There is seldom direct evidence or witnesses, but there are a multitude of alternate suspects, all of which pressures prosecutors to accept plea bargains. “You don’t get any sentence without a conviction,” he said.

Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy said minimum sentences in child-murder cases would be “devastating” to prosecutors. The department’s judgment may not be perfect, but limiting the discretion of prosecutors is unwise, said Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson of the homicide division.

The committee took the advice of prosecutors and voted 11-0 against establishing a minimum sentence for causing child deaths but voted 11-0 in favor of LD 870 in favor of forming a commission to study stiffer penalties in cases involving child murder.

In a long work session on controversial bills, the committee, with several of the 13 members missing, also voted:

. 9-1 against LD 1443, which seeks to make adultery illegal, with the sole supporting vote from Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Poland.

. 11-0 against LD 1343, which sought to increase the penalties for criminal speeding.

. Tabled a bill to make bestiality a crime after Chairman Povich argued that the problem could be prosecuted under current animal cruelty laws. Although sexual abuse of animals is “disgusting,” Povich said he did not want to create a new law to criminalize a sexual act and “place police in the bedroom.” The state had a bestiality law on the books until it was removed in the 1970s. Countering Povich’s comments, prosecutors told the committee Monday that animal sexual abuse cases could not be tried successfully without a new law. The committee, which appeared strongly in favor of re-establishing the bestiality law, agreed to postpone a decision until May 5.