South Dakota

History of the Death Penalty

All exe­cu­tions were car­ried out by hang­ing until 1947, when George Sitts was exe­cut­ed by elec­tro­cu­tion. Executions since 1976 have used lethal injection.

Timeline

1877 — Jack McCall becomes the first per­son exe­cut­ed by the gov­ern­ment in the ter­ri­to­ry that is now South Dakota.

1915 — South Dakota abol­ish­es the death penalty.

1939 — The death penal­ty is rein­stat­ed with elec­tro­cu­tion as the only method of execution.

1979 — The death penal­ty is rein­stat­ed fol­low­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Furman v. Georgia.

1984 — Lethal injec­tion is first avail­able as a method of exe­cu­tion in South Dakota.

2018 — Charles Rhines asks U.S. Supreme Court to review his case and to rule that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al for jurors to impose the death penal­ty based on anti-gay ani­mus and stereotypes.

2019 — The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review the case of Charles Rhines, despite juror’s anti-gay state­ments and reliance on homo­pho­bic beliefs in decid­ing to sen­tence him to death.

2020 — The Senate Judiciary Committee votes down a bill that would have pro­hib­it­ed the use of the death penal­ty against indi­vid­u­als with severe mental illness.

2021 — A South Dakota state sen­a­tors intro­duces a bill that would restrict cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­ders in which a defen­dant kills a police offi­cer, cor­rec­tions offi­cer, or fire­fight­er dur­ing the per­for­mance of their offi­cial duties. The bill would also lim­it the death penal­ty to the actu­al per­pe­tra­tor of the crime.

Famous Capital Cases

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 13^th 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.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

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.

Other Interesting Facts

In 1984, South Dakota law was changed to pro­vide for exe­cu­tion by lethal injection.

Resources

• South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
• Department of Corrections
• Victims’ ser­vices

South Dakota Execution Totals Since 1976