The term, "mentally incompetent to proceed," as used in this chapter, means the condition of a person who is suffering from a mental disease, developmental disability, as defined in § 27B-1-18, or psychological, physiological, or etiological condition rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-10A-1
Definition of mental incompetency
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case State v. New (1995)
Most recently applied in State v. Foshay (February 2024)
Source: SL 1978, ch 175, § 2; SDCL Supp, § 23-38-1.1; SL 1985, ch 192, § 47; SL 1991, ch 199, § 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.