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S.D. Codified Laws § 22-11-19

Tampering with a witness--Felony

Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case State v. Armstrong (2020)

Most recently applied in State v. Trueblood (April 2024)

Source: SDC 1939, § 13.1246; SDCL, § 19-5-15; SL 1976, ch 158, §§ 11-14; SL 1978, ch 158, § 6; SL 1986, ch 179; SL 2004, ch 148, § 1; SL 2005, ch 120, § 213; SL 2023, ch 68, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

19871990200020102020202410
citing decisions per year

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.

Any person who injures or threatens to injure any person or property; who offers, confers, or agrees to confer any benefit on a witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding; or who corruptly persuades or corruptly influences another person to induce the witness to:

(1) Testify falsely;

(2) Withhold any testimony, information, document, or thing;

(3) Elude legal process summoning the witness to testify or supply evidence; or

(4) Absent himself or herself from an official proceeding to which the witness has been legally summoned;

is guilty of tampering with a witness. Any person who injures, or threatens to injure, any person or property in retaliation for that person testifying in an official proceeding, or for cooperating with law enforcement, government officials, investigators, or prosecutors, is guilty of tampering with a witness. Tampering with a witness is a Class 4 felony.

For the purposes of this section, the term, corruptly, means wrongful or immoral and done with an intent to impede the administration of justice.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.