Jason Ravnsborg: South Dakota prosecutor ousted over hit-and-run

South Dakota lawmakers have voted to impeach and remove from office the state's attorney general over a 2020 car crash in which he killed a man.

Jason Ravnsborg has said he thought he struck a deer while driving home at night on 12 September 2020 and did not know it was a man until the next day.

Prosecutors, however, argued Ravnsborg, 46, "absolutely saw the man that he struck in the moments after".

The Republican had refused to resign over the incident.

Despite facing opposition from all corners, Ravnsborg maintained his innocence in the death of Joseph Boever, 55.

Last year, he beat the criminal case against him by taking a plea deal on misdemeanour traffic charges.

But his luck ran out in the state legislature, where he was impeached by the House in April.

On Tuesday, the Senate convicted Ravnsborg for committing crimes that caused someone's death, and on a malfeasance charge for misleading law enforcement and abusing the powers of his office.

The move triggers his automatic removal from office. The chamber also voted unanimously to bar the prosecutor from holding future office in the state.

South Dakota's highest-ranked lawyer was driving home from a party fundraiser when officials say he hit and killed Boever, a pedestrian, on a rural highway.

Prosecutors say he was driving at 67mph (108km/h), 2mph over the speed limit, and that records show he had locked his mobile phone about one minute before the collision.

Investigators arriving at the scene one day after the crash found a working torch, which was still on and only inches from the road, and bone scrapings on the ground.

Ravnsborg is the first official to be impeached in state history.

Governor Kristi Noem - a Republican 2024 presidential hopeful who pushed aggressively for his ouster - will pick his replacement.