A violation of § 22-14-12 shall be charged in the indictment or information as a separate count in addition to the principal felony or attempted felony alleged to have been committed. No offense may be charged under those sections if the use of a dangerous weapon is a necessary element of the principal felony alleged to have been committed or attempted.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-14-14
Armed felony to be charged separately from principal felony charge--No offense charged when dangerous weapon an element of principal felony
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case State v. Birdshead (2015)
Most recently applied in State v. Birdshead (October 2015)
Source: SL 1976, ch 158, § 14-8; SL 2005, ch 120, § 254.
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.