Insanity is an affirmative defense to a prosecution for any criminal offense. Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense. The defendant has the burden of proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing evidence.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-5-10
Insanity as affirmative defense--Burden of proof
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case State v. Baker (1989)
Most recently applied in United States v. Waldman (October 2001)
Source: SL 1985, ch 192, § 11.
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.