COLUMBIA ? The state's judicial selection process ensures well-qualified judges are elected to the bench, U.S. Attorney Reggie Lloyd said.

Increasing diversity among the state's judges is a separate issue which requires getting more qualified black candidates to run and making legislators mindful of diversity as they vote, Lloyd said Tuesday. The debate on bench diversity will help accomplish that, he said.

"I think we need to be very careful about radically changing a good process," so it's not destroyed, said Lloyd, who this year became the first black U.S. attorney in South Carolina's modern history to hold the position permanently.

Lloyd quickly added he has no desire to advise state legislators on state law.

To fill the seat Lloyd vacated, legislators will choose May 24 between three black candidates nominated by a judicial screening panel. It will mark the first time the General Assembly has elected a black judge since 2003, when Lloyd was approved as an at-large circuit judge.