NASHVILLE (AP) - Just five candidates have submitted applications to fill an upcoming West Tennessee vacancy on the state's highest court.

The two judges, two attorneys in private practice and a law professor submitted their applications by the Thursday deadline to be considered as finalists by the newly-created Governor's Commission on Judicial Appointments.

Gov. Bill Haslam created the 17-member panel through an executive order on Oct. 17. It largely mirrors the functions of the Judicial Nominating Commission, which lawmakers allowed to expire in June.

The applicants are Criminal Judge Christopher Bright Craft, Appeals Judge Holly M. Kirby, Humphrey's School of Law professor Steven J. Mulroy and attorneys William Lewis Jenkins Jr. and John Brook Lathram. Each of the applicants is from Memphis except for Jenkins , who is from Dyersburg.