The term, premeditated design to effect the death, means an intention, purpose, or determination to kill or take the life of the person killed, distinctly formed and existing in the mind of the perpetrator before committing the act resulting in the death of the person killed. A premeditated design to effect death sufficient to constitute murder may be formed instantly before committing the act.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-16-5
Premeditated design to effect the death defined
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case State v. Wright (2009)
Most recently applied in State v. Bolden (April 2024)
Source: SDC 1939, § 13.2008; SL 1978, ch 158, § 8; SL 2005, ch 120, § 155.
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.