Panel set to recommend 3 Indiana Supreme Court finalists

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A state commission is nearing a vote on three finalists to recommend to Gov. Mike Pence for an upcoming vacancy on the Indiana Supreme Court.

The Judicial Nominating Commission on Friday will finish interviewing the 15 remaining candidates seeking to replace retiring Justice Brent Dickson.

The panel will then deliberate privately before voting in public Friday to recommend three finalists to the governor.

Pence will have 60 days to select one of the three for his first appointment to the state’s highest court.

Dickson will step down April 29 before reaching the court’s mandatory retirement age of 75. His departure will mean four of the court’s five justices will have been appointed since 2010.

Twenty-nine people applied for the vacancy on the bench. The commission chose 15 semifinalists in mid-February.