If a defendant has been convicted of three or more felonies in addition to the principal felony and none of the prior felony convictions was for a crime of violence as defined in subdivision § 22-1-2(9), the sentence for the principal felony shall be enhanced by two levels but in no circumstance may the enhancement exceed the sentence for a Class C felony. A defendant sentenced pursuant to this section is eligible for consideration for parole pursuant to § 24-15A-32 if the defendant receives a sentence of less than life in prison.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-7-8.1
Three or more additional felony convictions not including a crime of violence--Enhancement of sentence--Limitation--Parole
Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case State v. Goodroad (1997)
Most recently applied in State v. Long Soldier (July 2023)
Source: SL 1984, ch 166, § 2; SL 2005, ch 120, § 385; SL 2006, ch 117, § 1.
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.