• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A split South Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a Sioux Falls woman's manslaughter conviction for causing a fatal crash by driving the wrong way on an interstate.
• The 3-2 ruling said 30-year-old Tammy Kvasnicka is entitled to a new trial because a police officer's testimony should not have been allowed in her first trial. The majority opinion said the officer's testimony comparing the force of the July 2010 crash to the simultaneous firing of more than 900 handguns was irrelevant and probably influenced the jury.
• The dissenting justices said the officer's testimony was relevant to proving Kvasnicka was guilty of manslaughter by means of a dangerous weapon because she was using her car in a way likely to cause death or serious injury. Even if that testimony was not relevant, it did not change the jury's verdict, the dissent said.
• Authorities said Kvasnicka drove the wrong way on Interstate 229 in Sioux Falls while drunk and hit an oncoming car, killing one person and injuring another. Authorities said her blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit for driving.
• A jury in 2011 convicted her of first-degree manslaughter by means of a dangerous weapon, vehicular homicide, vehicular battery and driving under the influence. She was initially sentenced to 60 years in prison, but the trial judge later modified that to 70 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction, with 18 years suspended. The sentences for the other convictions were to run at the same time as the manslaughter sentence.
• South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said his office believes the ruling only overturns the manslaughter conviction. Prosecutors will now decide whether to proceed with a new trial on the manslaughter charge, he said.
• Nicole Laughlin, Kvasnicka's appeals lawyer, said her client never disputed that her blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit or that she was driving the car. Kvasnicka's defense only argued that the appropriate conviction would be for vehicular homicide, not the manslaughter charge that carries a much higher penalty, she said.
• Kvasnicka's prison term for the manslaughter conviction amounted to a life sen

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