'Dixie' song case to be re-prosecuted

BOISE (AP) - The Idaho Attorney General's office said it won't appeal after the state appellate court threw out a black man's sex crime convictions.

The Court of Appeals last month overturned the guilty verdict against James Kirk, saying the prosecutor interjected race in closing arguments by quoting lyrics from the Confederate anthem "Dixie."

Canyon County is planning to re-prosecute the case, which may go to trial again.

Kirk was convicted in 2013 of sex crimes with two underage girls in Canyon County. Both teenagers are white.

In its Dec. 19 ruling, all three appellate judges agreed that Canyon County Deputy Prosecutor Erica Kallin erred in citing a song praising what the judges called pernicious racism that might have influenced the jury.