Homicide is murder in the second degree if perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular person, including an unborn child.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-16-7
Homicide as murder in the second degree
Applied in 43 court decisions — leading case Goetz v. State (2001)
Most recently applied in State v. Bordeaux (October 2025)
Source: SDC 1939, § 13.2007 (2); SL 1980, ch 173, § 10; SL 2005, ch 120, § 156.
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.