The court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence.
S.D. Codified Laws § 19-19-403
Excluding relevant evidence for prejudice, confusion, waste of time, or other reasons
Applied in 40 court decisions — leading case Knecht v. Evridge (2020)
Most recently applied in State v. Winckler (March 2026)
Source: SL 1979, ch 358 (Supreme Court Rule 78-2, Rule 403); SDCL § 19-12-3; SL 2016, ch 239 (Supreme Court Rule 15-25), eff
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.