Chief Justice Rita B. Garman announced Tuesday the Illinois Supreme Court's appointment of DeWitt County State's Atty. Karle Eric Koritz to fill the judicial vacancy of Resident Circuit Judge of DeWitt County in the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

The appointment is effective December 5, 2014, and will terminate December 5, 2016. He will fill the vacancy created by the death of the Honorable Garry W. Bryan.

Chief Justice Garman recommended to the Supreme Court that Mr. Koritz be appointed after an application and review process that included evaluation by a specially selected screening committee.

"This is a tremendous and humbling honor for me and I would like to thank Chief Justice Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court for the confidence they have placed in me with this appointment," said Mr. Koritz. "It has been a privilege to serve as state's attorney of DeWitt County and it will be a privilege to follow Judge Bryan to the bench."

Mr. Koritz graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2005, attending law school after teaching high school history and government for one year in the mountains of northeast Tennessee.

Following his admission to the Illinois bar in November 2005, Mr. Koritz joined the Peoria law firm of Quinn, Johnston, Henderson & Pretorius with an emphasis on defending medical malpractice cases. He joined the McLean County state's attorney's office in 2007 where he obtained extensive jury trial experience in cases ranging from simple traffic and DUIs to Class X felonies, including homicide.

In 2008, he was named "Hero of the Highway" by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

He was elected state's attorney in November 2012.

Mr. Koritz is active in his church and several local service groups, and he is a member of the DeWitt County Bar Association.

He graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1999, where he was an NCAA College Division III All-American hurdler, and received his Master of Education degree from Milligan College in Johnson City, Tenn., in 1999.

Mr. Koritz is a 1995 graduate of Clinton High School.

Mr. Koritz has been married for 13 years to Katy, and together they have four children: Adeline 8, Abel 6, Kacy 4, and Annabel 1.

The screening committee that evaluated six applicants consisted of seven persons—four lawyers and three nonlawyers—who reside in the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

The nonlawyer members of the committee were Farmer City resident Dick Maxwell, Clinton residents Dr. Monica DeGrauwe, Dave Jackson and Myra Stroud, who served as chairperson. The lawyer members of the committee were Nancy Handegan of Decatur, Lott Thomas of Champaign and William Tracy II of Monticello.