How to use non utf-8 input in mod_python python version 2

I have tried to encode user input using .decode("utf-8") . This works if I try "—".decode("utf-8") in a python terminal, and returns u'\u2014 . However, when I use title=str(data.getfirst("title")).decode("utf-8"), and "—" is givin as input into the field "title," i get the error

MOD_PYTHON ERROR

ProcessId:      15713
Interpreter:    '104.236.175.124'

ServerName:     '104.236.175.124'
DocumentRoot:   '/var/www/html'

URI:            '/news/process'
Location:       None
Directory:      '/var/www/html/news/'
Filename:       '/var/www/html/news/process'
PathInfo:       ''

Phase:          'PythonHandler'
Handler:        'main'

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mod_python/importer.py", line 1537, in HandlerDispatch
    default=default_handler, arg=req, silent=hlist.silent)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mod_python/importer.py", line 1229, in _process_target
    result = _execute_target(config, req, object, arg)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mod_python/importer.py", line 1128, in _execute_target
    result = object(arg)

  File "/var/www/html/news/main.py", line 260, in handler
    title=str(data.getfirst("title")).decode("utf-8")

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/encodings/utf_8.py", line 16, in decode
    return codecs.utf_8_decode(input, errors, True)

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0x97 in position 0: invalid start byte


MODULE CACHE DETAILS

Accessed:       Thu Dec 11 22:53:15 2014
Generation:     5

_mp_383c313d3e7418a670f804c3690ec23d {
  FileName:     '/var/www/html/news/main.py'
  Instance:     4
  Generation:   5
  Modified:     Thu Dec 11 22:41:18 2014
  Imported:     Thu Dec 11 22:44:39 2014
  Children:     '/var/www/html/news/watermark.py'
}

_mp_4e16edabf4b38a5ecba6b7d6a0929034 {
  FileName:     '/var/www/html/news/watermark.py'
  Instance:     1
  Generation:   1
  Modified:     Sun Dec  7 22:23:13 2014
  Imported:     Thu Dec 11 22:29:44 2014
}

My Python version is 2.7, and my mod_python version is 3.5.

Thank you for your time,

Daniel