State And Federal Info
All executions were carried out by hanging until 1947, when George Sitts was executed by electrocution. Executions since 1976 have used lethal injection.
The first person executed by the government in the land that is now South Dakota was Jack McCall, the man convicted of killing Wild Bill Hickok. The execution happened in 1877.
The second person executed in the land that is now South Dakota was Thomas Egan, who was convicted of killing his wife. He was “hanged” three times on the 13th of July 1882; the rope broke on the first attempt, and on the second attempt the rope did not break his neck. Only on the third attempt did the execution go as planned. Years later, his stepdaughter admitted to committing the crime when she was on her death bed.
In 2001, Elijah Page and Briley Piper pleaded guilty to the torture-murder of Chester Allan Poage. They were both sentenced to death by a judge. Darrell Hoadley chose to plead innocent to the murder and was convicted by a jury. Though he was found to have the same aggravating factors against him, a split sentencing jury led to him receiving life in prison. Page chose to end his appeals and was executed in 2007. Piper challenged his death sentence and had his death sentence vacated. He is scheduled to be re-sentenced by a jury in July of 2011.
Fourteen people were executed in what is now South Dakota before the death penalty was abolished in the state in 1915.
The death penalty was reinstated, with execution by electric chair as the only method, in 1939. One person, George Sitts in 1947, was executed before the death penalty was found to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in 1972.
In 1984, South Dakota law was changed to provide for execution by lethal injection.
Mental Illness
Feb 23, 2022
Bills that would exempt individuals with severe mental illness from the death penalty have taken major steps forward in the Kentucky and South Dakota legislatures. The Kentucky House of Representatives voted overw…
Crimes Punishable by Death
Jan 26, 2021
A South Dakota state senator who previously served as a prosecutor and a state court judge has introduced a bill to limit the breadth of the state’s death penalty statute.
United States Supreme Court
Oct 12, 2020
NEWS (10/5/20) — Washington, D.C.: The 2020 – 2021 U.S. Supreme Court term opened on October 5 with the Court declining to review challenges to more than 30 death-penalty court decisions. The only death-pen…
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 23, 2020
Colorado — The House Judiciary committee voted 6 – 3 on February 18 to approve SB 20 – 100, a bill that would prospectively repea…
Mental Illness
Nov 04, 2019
Whether South Dakota death-row prisoner Charles Rhines (pictured) …
United States Supreme Court
Jun 28, 2019
In the midst of National Pride Month commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, South Dakota has issued a death warrant seeking to execute a gay man whose death sen…
United States Supreme Court
Apr 16, 2019
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the case of a South Dakota death-row prisoner whose jurors made anti-gay statements and relied on homophobic beliefs in deciding to sentence him to death. On April 15,…
International
Apr 03, 2019
As human rights activists raise alarms about a new law in Brunei that would punish homosexuality by death by stoning, the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to hear a case in which jurors who exhibited anti-gay bigotry sentenced…
Intellectual Disability
Oct 29, 2018
The South Dakota Supreme Court has denied motions that sought to delay the October 29, 2018 execution of Rodney Berget (pictured). As the state prepared to execute Berget, the former public defender who represente…
United States Supreme Court
Jun 05, 2018
A gay man on death row in South Dakota has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case and to rule that it is unconstitutional for jurors to impose the death penalty based upon anti-gay animus and stereotypes. Charles …
