Prosecutors have until Jan. 9 to decide whether to appeal a ruling tossing out the conviction of a black Idaho man because the prosecutor quoted lyrics to the Southern Civil War anthem "Dixie."
The man, James D. Kirk, 46, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his 2013 conviction on charges of lewd conduct and sexual battery of a minor child. But in a ruling made public this week, the Idaho Court of Appeals overturned Kirk's conviction, finding that Canyon County Deputy Prosecutor Erica Kallin's recitation of "Dixie" during closing arguments unconstitutionally tainted his trial by "injecting the risk of racial prejudice into the case." The state attorney general's office told The Idaho Statesman of Boise that it was still reviewing the opinion.