If an offense charged is a Class A, Class B, Class C, or Class 1 felony, the prosecution and the defense each have twenty peremptory challenges. In all other felony cases, the prosecution and the defense each have ten peremptory challenges. In misdemeanor cases, the prosecution and the defense each have three peremptory challenges.
S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-20-20
(Rule 24(b)) Number of peremptory challenges allowed
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case State v. Rhines (1996)
Most recently applied in State v. Rus (March 2021)
Source: SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 34.3616; SDCL § 23-43-28; SL 1978, ch 178, § 251; SL 1979, ch 159, § 13; SL 1981, ch 186, § 1; SL 2009, ch 124, § 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.